Decision-making in cruise operations management: A double-hurdle approach

In the cruise operations management literature, scant knowledge is available regarding the choice of ports-of-call. Hence, insight into cruise lines' decisions to visit a given port (or not) through a two-step decision-making process may provide an effective means to inform cruise operations management. Based on a novel perspective on cruise online ratings and reviews, this research applied a Heckman double-hurdle approach to 505 global cruise ports to analyze the patterns of cruise visits. Results revealed that the number of cruise visits were significantly related to cruise port ratings, excursion ratings, and the number of reviews. Next, Sobel-Goodman mediation tests showed that online platforms had substantial mediating effects on cruise port ratings. Further, robustness checks based on two sub-samples demonstrated that the empirical results of the double-hurdle models were reliable. This paper provides the first empirical attempt to demonstrate the nexus between cruise lines and ports in an online platform context. The empirical findings provide implications for source credibility theory and cruise operations management. They are also believed to be useful for researchers in operations management studies, business practitioners in international cruising, policymakers, and port authorities.