Abstract:

The cruise industry is one of the largest growing sectors in the tourism industry. Most large passenger vessels operate their own “boat economies” offering floating hotels that meet passengers’ food, drinking and even shopping needs. The ships can carry all the materials they need on board, even where local food and products can be easily found. This situation allowed cruise ships to create their own consumption cultures. This article shows an economic approach to understanding the cruise tourism industry as the driving force of economic development. The objective is to identify the role and activities of the cruise industry and to identify the economic benefits and costs that can be made with more conscious local policy decisions on cruise tourism. In addition, this study explores the extent to which the current trends in the cruise tourism industry illustrate the four fundamental principles that support the Disneyland and McDonald’s thesis. There are some cruise sectors with qualities consistent with the basic principles: efficiency, calculability, predictability, control. However, these ships also show qualities that are incompatible with some of these principles. Risk and post-fordism personalization, cruise tourism sometimes makes it difficult to match with Disneylandization and McDonaldization thesis.

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