Key cooperation strategies between Spanish ports and tourist destinations: An exploratory analysis

Abstract

In recent years, cruise tourism has attracted more researchers due to the significant growth of the activity. However, most research has focused on cruise ships and their products, leaving the role of ports in cruise tourism in the background.

This research seeks to identify, analyse and categorise port-city strategies for cruise tourism from the point of view of the ports.

Qualitative research has been carried out based on 8 semi-structured interviews with different representatives of Spanish ports and complemented by document analysis. The results indicate that great efforts and investments are being made by ports and destinations to promote and improve the offer in this sector. However, these investments are not accompanied by feasibility studies, so they could have problems to guarantee their future. To fill these gaps, a model for classifying ports according to their port-city cruise strategies is proposed, which can be useful for both port authorities and destination managers.