Cruisers’ behaviour: intention to return as land to urists and recommend the destination. A structural equation model

This study analyses cruise visitors’ travel experience, their intention to return to a destination and the probability to recommend it. The empirical data were collected via a survey of cruise ship passengers th at stopped in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) during 2009. In order to improve to urism product and increase the probability of a revisit, satisfaction can be regarded as one of the main determinants. To this aim, a structural equation model (SEM) is developed. Specifically, consumer’s satisfaction is studied by taking into account the economic production factors, that is human and physical capital. Human capital is defined in te rms of “satisfaction with the tour guide” and “satisfaction with the bus and taxi drivers”. “Satisfaction of harbour facilities and services” and “satisfaction with transport” are used as physical capital variables. Two extra exogenous variables are also added to the SEM, that is “satisfaction with prices” that picks up the monetary value of the overal l purchasing experience and “safety in the harbour”. The findings show that satisfaction is positively affected by human and physical capital. Satisfaction also positively influences customers’ loyalty (i.e. the probability to return to Cartagena), however in this case the coefficients of the two latent satisfaction factors are not statistically significant. As a further result, loyalty is also positively influenced by prices. Hence, the more satisfied customers’ are with prices the higher their loyalty to Cartagena. As expected, the coefficient “safety in the harbour” presents a negative sign that implies that loyalty decreases as the destination is perceived as unsafe. Finally, the loyalty to Cartagena has been disaggregated in to two further components, that is the probability of a return visit and the probability to recommend. In both the ca ses, a positive coefficient is estimated that implies that an increase in loyalty enhances such probabilities. Howeve r, the coefficient for the probability of recommend (0.944) is higher that the one for the probability of return (0.537). This outcome is in line with the believe that respondents may give a bias response in the former case, whereas a more spontaneous and true response may be obtained in the latter case.