FAT cruise tourism: The shifting tide of experiences

This paper will explore the concepts of FAT Cruise Tourism and examine how the experience may shift depend on the cruise or the cruise ‘package’ offered by cruise organisations. The term ‘FAT’ (excessive Fatty Adipose Tissue) is controversial, but will be used in this paper to embrace a range of metaphors used to identify all types of people who have excessive weight or related weight issues. Overweight and obesity, defined as ‘globesity’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2000) as an unmet global issue, an epidemic, which will not go away (Eberwine, 2002; Critser, 2003; WTO, 2007). It is affecting many areas of society including the cruise industry (Weaver, 2005). In the light and growth and the emerging patterns in global tourism, particularly in the cruise sector (CLIA, 2006; Peisley, 2007), quality experiences for FAT cruise tourists are a growing phenomenon that needs to be addressed. According to JAY (2004) experiences may be temporal in nature and what was considered a cruise experience in the past is not the expected experience of ‘tomorrow’. Further investigation into FAT Cruise Tourism a generic term used to explore a sector of the cruise industry currently embryonic and somewhat immersed in the intricate marketing of cruise segments and target markets. FAT Cruise Tourism is considered a niche market, but could be the ‘mass market’ of the future. Many writers, (Cohen, 1979; Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Throop, 2003; Shaw, 2007) have examined the concept of experiences in different ways, where the experience phenomenon is regarded as the fourth economy, an elaborate maze of offerings, unique to the individual in that experiences have similarities but many disparities. The Shifting Tide of Experiences focuses on cruise tourism, and the consumption of cruise experiences. Furthermore it will concentrate on a conceptual arena through literature search and offer suggestions for future research.