Exploring assumptions about cruise tourists' visits to ports

• Cruisers don't spend more if more opportunities exist.
• Cruisers return as cruisers, land tourists as land tourists.
• WoM propensity is equal in both groups.

This paper examines assumptions that cruise tourists spend more if opportunities arise, and are likely to return later and make positive recommendations about a destination. Using data collected in 2012 and 2013 from cruise passengers landing at Bergen, Norway — which data includes patterns of visitation, past and present, and expenditure estimates, a comparison is made between cruise and land based tourists. It was found that cruise tourists did not spend more when more opportunities arose, that cruise tourists had lower inclination to revisit a destination when compared to land based tourists, while no significant difference as to willingness to recommend the trip to others was observed.