Abstract:
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The study establishes a proposed model of port of call management for cruise
tourism, Phuket, Thailand under four objectives; 1) to analyze the current situation of
the cruise tourism in Phuket, Thailand, 2) to evaluate the importance levels toward
factors affecting port of call management, 3) to measure the efficiency levels of port
of call management in Phuket, Thailand and 4) to propose a model of port of call
management tailored for the cruise tourism in Phuket, Thailand.
Due to a rapid growth of cruise tourism in Asia, cruise lines have deployed
more cruise ships in Asia. Thus, the comprehensive, exotic and new ports are in great
demands to deliver great experience as a part of cruising.
A literature review identified the current cruise tourism situation and port of
call management in particular. Four factors relevant to port of call management were
extracted to examine the importance levels of port of call management and to measure
the efficiency levels of Phuket’s port of call management simultaneously.
The study employed mixed research methodologies. The questionnaire was
used to gather the importance levels of port of call management and the efficiency
levels of Phuket’s port of call management from 562 cruise passengers of all four ship
sizes during their visit at Phuket port during November to December 2013.
Meanwhile, the semi-structured interviews were formulated to gather data from all
stakeholders relevant to Phuket’s port of call management which were 25 land-based
stakeholders, 14 cruise staff and 7 cruise passengers. Descriptive and inferential
statistics (T-test, one-way ANOVA, regression, correlation, and Chi Square) were applied to analyze the quantitative data while the content analysis was employed to
extract the findings from semi-structured interviews.
The cruise tourism in Phuket has grown significantly, indicated by a higher
number of cruise ships and cruise passengers especially Asian cruisers. The target
market has shifted from ageing to the multi-generational mix. The size of the cruise
ship visiting Phuket port tends to be bigger whereas the port capacity does not fit it.
Refer to the importance levels of port of call management, safety & security
onshore, health & sanitation, cleanliness, immigration formality & custom regulation
and political stability were the top five highest important ranks respectively whereas
collaboration of stakeholders, social acceptance, port characteristic, national cruise
policy and tourism amenity were the top five lowest important ranks in ascending
order.
Meanwhile, immigration formality & custom regulation, service provider,
tourism attraction, value for money and climate & sea conditions were the highest
efficient variables of Phuket’s port of call management respectively. The five lowest
efficient variables were port infrastructure, port facility, political stability, national
cruise policy and collaboration of stakeholders in ascending order. Both results are
consistent with the findings from interviews. In addition, a comparison between
importance and efficiency levels using IPA revealed that the widest gap was port
infrastructure, following with port facility, political stability respectively; while,
immigration formality & custom regulation, climate & sea conditions and tourism
activity showed the narrowest gaps in ascending order.
Ultimately, a model of Phuket’s port of call management was proposed under
the four missions which are 1) tourism products & service enhancement, 2) safety
performance priority, 3) port development, and 4) cruise tourism promotion.
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