Can Personality Influence People’s Intention to Cruise? The Role of Personality in Chinese Propensity for Cruising

ABSTRACT

Understanding the effects of tourists’ personality characteristics on cruise-related decision making is vital to the development of cruise tourism but remains unexplored. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among tourists’ personality traits, emotions, and cruising intentions. Two rounds of online surveys were conducted in Mainland China (N = 2400). Results reveal the major role of personality in tourists’ emotions and cruising intentions and highlight the impact of emotion on cruising intention. Allocentric tourists are more likely to express positive emotions toward cruising and to embark on cruises compared with psychocentric tourists. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

性格如何影响中国人的邮轮旅游意向 摘要

本文调查游客的个性特征在邮轮旅游决策中起的作用。此次研究的目的是检验游客的性格特征、情绪和邮轮旅游意向之间的相互作用。 作者在中国内地进行了两轮在线调查 (N = 2400)， 结果揭示了性格影响了游客情绪和邮轮旅游意向，并证实了情绪对邮轮旅游意向有一定的影响。 与依赖型的游客相比，冒险型的游客更有可能对邮轮旅游表现出积极的情绪并更愿意乘坐邮轮旅行。文章也讨论了此项研究的理论和实践意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Personality
• emotion
• cruising intention
• cruise tourism
• cruise decision making

关键词:

• 性格
• 情感
• 邮轮旅游意向
• 邮轮旅游
• 邮轮决策

Acknowledgments

This research project is funded by the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme from the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Project Number: 2015.A6.061.15D).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kam Hung

Kam Hung is a Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. Her research interests include Chinese travel behavior and psychology, cruise tourism, Chinese luxury consumption in tourism and hospitality, and senior travel (E-mail: [email protected]).

Lianping Ren

Lianping Ren is a Professor at the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao SAR, China. Her research interests include tourist behavior, strategic management, and tourism education (E-mail: [email protected]).

Yongli Zhang

Yongli Zhang is a Ph.D. student in Nolan School of Hotel Administration, SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, New York, USA. Her research interests include services operations management, revenue management, and consumer behavior (E-mail: [email protected]).