Alexis Papathanassis Books

This book addresses innovation management and product development in the cruise tourism industry. It explains how experience management has evolved from a strictly company-level, product- or service-focused tactical task to an industry-wide strategic challenge, and analyses the role of intangible reputational aspects of cruise experiences, as well as peripheral components and stakeholders, as increasingly important factors for customer acquisition and retention. Safety and risk issues are a central theme, as well as the cruise sector’s environmental and socio-economic impacts. Lastly, the book considers the increasing size of cruise vessels and the accompanying standardisation of facilities and itineraries, in conjunction with the hybridisation of cruise passengers in connection with expanding the competitive boundaries and intensity of competition in the cruise sector. The book approaches these issues as more than a mere public relations campaign, recognising the fact that they have since become the very essence of strategic cruise business development.

Innovation management is arguably essential for the profitability and growth sustainability of the cruise industry; as it is for most areas of business endeavour. Now, more than ever, the cruise sector is faced with significant challenges, including: safety and industry reputation in the aftermath of the Costa Concordia disaster, al larger competitive scope and diminishing profit margins. Given that innovation management can be perceived as a management attitude and cultural habit, fostering inspiration is just as relevant as delivering innovation methodologies and guidelines. On this basis, the aim of this combined conference proceedings is to provide a creativity impulse and to illustrate the breadth and potential of innovation management in the cruise sector. Sources on inspiration include: mobile information and communication technologies, multimedia, and the internet and focus on areas as diverse as safety, aesthetics, culture and professional education.

Increasingly, cruise operators are utilising information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve service-effectiveness and process efficiency, both on- and off-board. Therefore, it is worth initiating a discussion on the potential and challenges ICTs entail for both cruise operators’ back-offices and for cruisers’ consumption experiences. This book documents the proceedings of the 1st e-Cruising Conference (Bremerhaven, Germany), which was aimed at discussing the possibilities and applicability of ICTs and mobile services in various aspects of cruise operations. Following a rigorous double-blind review, the best papers were chosen to be incorporated in this volume.

The growth and increased popularity of cruises is accompanied by a number of sustainability issues concerning the environment, the port economies and societies; on board and at shore. The sustainability imperative ultimately leads to operational, economical as well as image-related challenges for the sector's decision-makers and stakeholders. This collection of peer-reviewed papers, presented during the 3rd International Cruise Conference (Dubrovnik, Croatia), seeks to address those issues and contribute to their management in the mid-term.

Over the last decades, mass-tourism and the emergence of the holiday package have transformed recreational travel from a ‘luxury for the few’ to a ‘commodity for the many’. The ever-increasing demand for individuality, enabled by information technologies and the internet, has given rise to numerous, rapidly-expanding holiday niches and a corresponding explosion of specialists. The resulting ‘long tail’ of holiday offerings implies dramatic shifts in the sector’s concentration levels and its competitive dynamics. In order to examine the applicability and validity of this scenario, a number of key holiday niches are examined in terms of their demand development, supplier landscapes, operational challenges and future potential.

Scale is a central theme in the cruise industry, originating from the excessive scale of ocean liners in the 1960s. As air travel replaced ocean travel, ships designed for scheduled services were repurposed for leisure cruising. Achieving cost-saving scale effects has driven business development and innovation for cruise lines. The formation of fleets in the 1970s reduced marketing, distribution, personnel, training, purchasing, and administrative costs per unit of capacity, leading to lower ticket prices and increased demand for cruises. Since the 1980s, scale effects have been realized at the individual ship level, with the introduction of large, purpose-built vessels further lowering unit costs and enhancing comfort and convenience. Papatheodorou (2006) emphasizes that for unit cost savings to occur, cruise capacity must align with sales scale. Consequently, larger fleets and ships have been linked to more professional sales management and revenue management strategies to ensure full occupancy. However, the fleets and ships of leading cruise companies like Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises have now reached such sizes that unit costs have become largely unaffected by scale.

1.0 Introduction In the popular film „Wall Street“, the ruthless investment banker played by Michael Douglas, devotes an ode to „Greed“, as part of his speech to the shareholders' meeting of a paper company he aims at acquiring: „The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for the like of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works! Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit. .. “ Even though the aforementioned acquisition deal did eventually fail, in today's economy M& A activity is surging to levels previously unknown. With the exception 1 of the first quarters of 2002 , the last decade has been characterised by unprecedented 2 number of transactions • It appears that „greed“ is gaining ground amongst top executives and shareholders. Inasmuch as greed is an integral part of human nature, so is the propensity to grow and develop a part of organisational nature. Greiner (1998: p.66) claims that organisational evolution is not merely a self-implied process, but a „contest for survival“. In other words, if organisations are to reach and potentially surpass their average life 3 expectancy range of 20 to 50 years, they need to evolve . Mergers & acquisitions seem to play a primary role in the evolution, and thus survival, of organisations.