Structure, characteristics and connectivity analysis of the Asian-Australasian cruise shipping network

ABSTRACT

Cruise shipping is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the maritime industry. This is due to the growing demand of the sector and the extension of capacity and cruise service coverage. This study uses network measures and random network models to analyse the structure, characteristics and connectivity of the cruise shipping network in Asia and Australasia. An analysis of 200 cruise voyages operated by 12 international cruise lines between 139 ports across 20 countries in the Asian and Australasian regions has found that the cruise shipping network is a scale-free network. This means the degree distribution follows a power law. A few ports play a central role in connecting ports in the network. However, their importance in the network varies depending on which measure of centrality is used, i.e. the degree, betweenness, closeness and eigenvector centrality. The establishment of a link between two ports is influenced by their connections with a third one or triangle relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Cruise shipping network
• network analysis
• random graph model
• centrality
• degree distribution
• network density

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. It is possible to consider the intensity or weight of the links that are not the focus of this study.

2. Note that because of the random nature, the number of links of the G_n,p network will generally not be the same the actual network. Furthermore, each of these random network models only shares one network statistic with the actual network, and they are not necessarily the best match of the real network.