A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to compare the prices of a particular tourism product, cruise tourism in China and Spain by analyzing the cruises departing from themajor ports of the two countries. It presents an empirical study based on brochure prices and actual prices paid by customers in 2019. Prices were obtained from a leading American Online Travel Agency (OTA). This research involved the collection of a large amount of information and the creation of different databases to present robust and reliable results. The methodology is based on the hedonic approach, which is widely used in other tourism studies but scarcely used in the cruise industry. Results reveal that although the prices in China are lower than in Spain, Spain still has all the possibility to lower minimum prices. Moreover, the paper observes that the cruise companies apply different pricing strategies highly depending on their own country's situation. The outcome and recommendations from this study can benefit both academics and practitioners in the field.