Models of cruise ports governance

This study examines the forms of cruise ports governance, the structures, and strategies that are applied with the aim of matching the needs of a changing cruise industry. Introducing the conceptual ‘matching framework’ approach of port governance, we study the configurations of cruise ports strategies and structures in the case of the second biggest market of the world, the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas. A database detailing the features observed in cruise ports in 18 different countries forms the backbone of the empirical analysis. Performing a Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA), that seeks correlations between four categories of variables (port type, port location, port structure, and port strategy) and cases, enables to detect whether there are distinctive patterns of governance regimes applied in different groups of cruise ports. The results identify four models, i.e. configurations of the environment-structure-strategy-contextual environment relationship triangle, marked, inter alia, by different roles of the managing entities – active leader, investor, marketer, and passive, respectively—and associated with the different roles of port authorities.