What Motivates Young UK Tourists to Cruise on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships? - Could it have something to do with what the cruise ships have to offer and the tourists' social background?

Abstract
The cruise industry is continually changing, due to this there isn't much theory available about cruise tourism. Cruise ships are now being designed to meet the needs of a variety of customers, instead of just meeting the needs of the 'typical' cruise customers. This paper will look at how the Royal Caribbean motivates young UK tourists to cruise on their ships.

Key Words: Royal Caribbean, Motivation, Cruise Tourism, Social Background

Cruise tourism according to Mintel (2007) is to do with tourists being on-board a vessel, whose primary purpose is accommodation and to visit a variety of destinations. A cruise according to Morgan and Powers in (Robinson, 2010) "[is] to sail from place to place for pleasure calling at a succession of destinations, or to sail, journey or move about by means of a cruise ship". Over the last few years the cruise industry has started to change and is currently constantly changing. The reason for this is because cruise companies want to move away from their typical cruise customers and attract new customers such as young people. According to Mintel (2007) "the typical cruise customers are wealthy older couples whose children have grown up and left home".

Royal Caribbean is currently the second largest operator in the Caribbean (Kester, 2002). The company was established in 1968, and currently appeals to families and middle market customers. This paper will look at what motivates young UK tourists to cruise on Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships.

Motivation according to Cooper et al (2005) is grounded in sociological and physical norms, attitudes, culture, and perceptions that lead to specific forms of motivation. However, Gray's travel motivation theory gives two motives why people travel. One motive is the desire to go from a known place to an unknown place (Mansfeld et al, 1992). The other motive why people travel is to do with going to a place which can provide them with specific features that do not exist of residence (Mansfeld et al, 1992).

According to Page and Connel (2006) social class is a concept which has numerous dimensions associated with power, money, prestige, culture, and background. Currently, cruise operators are appealing to ever-broader demographic groups by improving and extending the range of facilities on-board activities and adventures on-shore (Mintel, 2009).

According to Mintel (2009) "younger holidaymakers are often looking for an adventure while on holiday with the mix of on-board facilities teamed with on-shore excursions". This is just an example of motivations. However, young tourists are also motivated by having the opportunity of visiting a range of destinations, as well as experiencing different cultures while on a cruise. Young people are also motivated by mixing with other tourists and having fun (Jonsson and Devonish, 2008). Also, when choosing a cruise company suitable for their needs, they would look at recommendations by others. Their social background would also influence their choices by having an effect on how much they could spend.

The Royal Caribbean motivates young UK tourists to cruise on their ships by offering them adventure on-board, as well as on-shore with excursions that they offer. Examples are: 4x4 off-roading, mountain biking, pub crawls, beach and water activities, reef tours, and safaris (Royal Caribbean International, 2011). The company recognises the motive for meeting new people, so they have on-board facilities such as nightclubs, bars, and lounges, to give customers the opportunity to socialise. The Royal Caribbean offers a range of on-board facilities such as restaurants, bars, discos, swimming pools, gyms and other sports facilities (Kester, 2002). By having these facilities, helps meet the needs of young people. This could be the reason why Royal Caribbean cruises are now attracting younger passengers, and why the typology of cruise passengers is changing, with their passengers getting younger.

Young people are more likely to cruise with the Royal Caribbean compared to a company that isn't as popular or as well known, due to the company being known worldwide, and due to the company having a good reputation. Royal Caribbean provides information about each of their ships, as well as feedback. This gives people the chance to look at peoples' opinions that have already had experience on their ships.

However, social background does play a part when deciding on which Royal Caribbean cruise ship young tourists would go on. The reason for this is because they may have a budget that they must keep too. With the Royal Caribbean having luxury cruise ships that are high price, it is the price which could de-motive young people wanting to go on certain cruises, because they may not be able to afford it. This is where social background has an impact on young people being motivated to cruise with Royal Caribbean.

The company currently appeals mainly to upper and middle class backgrounds, which could mean that people with a lower social class probably cruise with another company that could be cheaper. However, if they ate motivated to cruising on the Royal Caribbean, they may have to save money over the years, in order to meet their needs for wanting to cruise with the company.

Overall, this paper shows that young people can be motivated by what the Royal Caribbean offers, but social background does have an impact. This is because it determines whether they can afford to cruise with this company.

References
• Mintel (2007) Cruises UK. [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2011]. Available at: <http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=219244>.
• Mintel (2009) Short-haul Cruises: UK. [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2011]. Available at: <http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=394688>.
• Royal Caribbean International (2011) Royal Caribbean International. [Online]. [Accessed 17 April 2011]. Available at: <http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/>.

This paper mainly showed how the Royal Caribbean motivates young UK tourists to cruise on their ships and the influence from tourists' social background.

First at all, the author provided a background about cruise tourism and highlighted that there is a new change emerging in this industry: cruise companies want to move away from their typical cruise customers and attract new customers such as young people. Then, the article naturally moved to a clear introduction of Royal Caribbean which is the second largest operator in the Caribbean. Next, it gave an understanding on motivation and Gray's travel motivation theory which identify two motives why people travel. One motive is the desire to go from a known place to an unknown place. The other motive is to go a place which can provide them with specific features that do not exist in his or her own residence. Not only had the author taken several related examples of young tourists' inner motivations (e.g. have a fun, look for an adventure, different experience) to a cruise holiday, but also found out large amount information about the Royal Caribbean to do something for attracting young people, for instance, by offering them adventure on-board and on-shore with excursions. It also indicated that young people are more likely to cruise with the Royal Caribbean due to its high awareness and good reputation.

In addition, the author pointed out an issue that social background has an impact on young people participating in cruise tourism with Royal Caribbean and gave the following reasons. With the Royal Caribbean having luxury cruise ships, it is a high price which could de-motive young people wanting to go on certain cruises, because they may not be able to afford it. Finally, an appropriate conclusion was made to underpin above key points.

Therefore, it can be seen that the general structure is from brief and definition to detailed content through extensive explanation and illustration. The author applied theoretical knowledge in practice effectively. While, the Gray's travel motivational theory which used in this article is not fully, that is it does not give any indication regarding possible motivations or what exactly the tourist needs. This generated a lack of all-round internal factors of motivating young people to experience cruise holiday. A big disadvantage with this theory, according to Singh (2008), is that it "represents a confusion between person-specific motivations and resort-specific attributes". It is suggested that numerous other theories like Crompton's nine motives and Iso-Ahola personal-interpersonal motives which focus not only in the intrinsic motivation to travel, but also in the characteristics and benefits these settings might appear to offer to satisfy a need (Singh, 2008).

In sum, it is worthy to mention that the author of this discussion paper has obviously linked to the topic of the conference strand as cruise company need to get enough knowledge of young people's travel motivations and meet their demands, and actually social background indeed plays a critical role in decision-making process.



Reference

L.K. Singh (2008) Management of Travel Agency [online]. India: ISHA Books. [Accessed 11 May 2011]. Available at: < http://books.google.com.>.