Revenue efficiency and its drivers in the cruise industry

Abstract

The recent capacity expansion, the pressure to fully utilize capacity, and the increasingly intense competition among cruise companies have greatly challenged revenue management in the cruise industry. Despite the constant efforts to optimize all revenue streams, cruise companies have gained a limited understanding of their revenue efficiency and untapped revenue potential. Within this context, the present study adopts a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach applied to the data set of 181 cruise ships in 2018 to examine revenue efficiency and its drivers in the cruise industry. The results reveal that the cruise ships generally have forgone a considerable amount of potential revenues, indicating a necessity for revisiting revenue strategies. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the connection between the cruise ship's revenue efficiency and its features, cruise category, and exogenous events. Finally, some managerial implications for improving and maintaining revenue efficiency are provided.