Guest-to-guest interaction on board cruise ships: Exploring social dynamics and the role of situational factors

Cruise ships are increasing in size, itineraries are becoming more standardised, and new customer segments are emerging. These factors induce a new social reality and represent a potential differentiator for the production and offering of cruise experiences. In this light, the study of guest-to-guest interactions will expectedly gain importance over time for cruise planning and operations. This explorative-interpretative study is divided into two phases. First, a survey of 173 randomly-selected respondents aimed at comparing the significance of social interaction on board, with that of other cruise product features. Social interaction emerged as a secondary issue and no significant differences were identified between customer categories. However, a deeper exploration of the collected data questioned this finding. Subsequently, the analysis of 76 semi-structured interviews resulted to a tentative model of factors affecting satisfaction with the interaction between guests on board. Finally, suggestions for further research and practical implications are discussed.

► Cruise guest-to-guest (abbr. G2G) interactions is becoming a key management challenge.
► The role of G2G for cruise satisfaction is implicit but nonetheless central.
► Conventional guest surveys are inadequate for revealing the social aspects of the cruise experience.
► Beyond customer compatibility, situational factors are explored and integrated into existing research.
► Social experience facilitation and customer integration is proposed as a service design approach.