Research On Structure And Optimization Of Cruise Tourism System

Cruising, a ten million plus passenger, multi -billion dollar, world-wide industry,is one of tourism's fastest growing sectors. Over the years the cruise ships that havedone this have become legends. Because of its greatly economic driving force, thecruise industry has become the first choise of port cities which face an economictransferring period. The first decade of the 21th century witnesses a fast growth ofcruise tourism in our country; several cruise ports has been planned and built alongthe coast of China, which shows great passion for this new branch of tourism industry.Cruise tourism in China is a relatively new industry. At present, there is a lack ofinclusive government planning for the the development of cruise tourism. The steadyincrease of cruise tourism traffic in the region since 2000 suggests the potential foreconomic and social impacts to maritime citiesports. There is a need for the creationof guidelines to direct this tourism activity, therefore, the study on the systemconstruction of cruise tourism which is the base of tourism planning seems rathercritical.This study establishes an initial understanding of the configuration and Operationof cruise tourism system. Two specific objectives were fulfilled; (a) to develop anunderstanding of the system diagram and operational procedures of cruise tourism,and (b) to provide insight into the constituent elements that may cause adverse effectfor the sustainable development of cruise tourism system in Shanghai, and to explorethe effective management in Shanghai cruise tourism system.Content analysis of current cruise tourism literature was used to identify theconstituent elements, which create the base for a semi-structured interview thatexplored the configuration of cruise tourism system. From these findings, data wasused to create a framework that will assist in the planning and management of cruisetourism in Shanghai.The results indicate that cruise tourism in Shanghai need to overcome somebottlenecks. Such issues include the need for further improvement of the cruise portfunction, the need to improve the local supply mechanism for cruise ships, a need for the enrichment of the onshore excursions and the operation experiences of local travelsuppliers, and finally, greater awearness and assiatance given to the building ofregional cooperation mechanism. Draw on the experiences of advanced region andcountry, this study proposes some suggestions on the further development of Shanghaicrusie tourism.