Cruisers in the City of Helsinki: staging the mobility of cruise passengers

Abstract

International cruise passengers moving in urban destinations have particular time limitation that can make enabling and disabling elements of mobility meaningful on the quality of their visit. Identifying these elements is essential to improve their independent movement. Based on a staging mobilities framework that considers the dimensions of physical settings, material spaces, design (PMD), social interactions (SI) and embodied performances (EP) in situ, the research has analysed location-specific information in Helsinki, a popular port of call in the Baltic Sea. The study has used go-along observations and mobile application in data collection. The produced dataset was analysed by combining GIS-methods and content analyses. As a result, five categories were identified under the dimension of PMD: wayfinding tools, unexpected situations, lack of rest spots and walkability. Categories identified under the dimension of SI were local people, service providers and travel companions, and other tourists. Categories identified under the dimension of EP were traffic behaviour, occasioned activities, sense of direction, planning, and time-related anxiety. Urban destinations such as Helsinki can apply these results in practice, to make the movement of independently moving cruise passengers as effortless as possible, contributing to a better experience of the city space for both tourists and other city users. The proposed methodology could also be used to analyse other mobility-related phenomena.

摘要：

漫步城市旅游地的国际游轮乘客有特定的时间限制, 他们移动的能动因素和障碍因素对其访问质量意义重大。识别这些要素对于改善他们各自的移动至关重要。基于一个分段移动框架（考虑物理环境、实体空间、设计、社会互动和现场表现等维度）, 本研究分析了赫尔辛基(波罗的海最受欢迎的停靠港)的区位信息。该研究在数据收集中采用了亲身观察和移动设备, 结合地理信息系统与内容分析方法, 对生成的数据集进行分析。因此, 在实体环境、物质空间和设计维度下确定了5个类别:寻路工具、意外情况、缺乏休息点和可步行性。在社会互动维度下确定的类别是当地人、服务提供者和旅伴以及其他游客。在亲身体验维度下的分类是交通行为、偶发活动、方向感、计划和与时间相关的焦虑。赫尔辛基等城市目的地可以将这些结果应用到实践中, 使独自出行的游船乘客尽可能轻松, 为游客和其他城市用户提供更好的城市空间体验。该方法也可用于分析其他与移动有关的现象。

Keywords:

• Tourism mobility
• staging mobilities
• urban tourism
• cruise tourism
• Helsinki
• port of call

关键词:

• 旅游移动性
• 分段移动
• 城市旅游
• 邮轮旅游
• 赫尔辛基
• 停靠港

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Charlie Hornsby, the coder of the mobile application, for his support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Henrik Bitte Foundation, City of Helsinki and the Helsinki Tourism Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Kaisa Paananen

Kaisa Paananen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geosciences and Geography, The Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional studies at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation examines the mobility of tourists inside urban destinations and the effects that tourism mobility in urban environments have on other street users.

Paola Minoia

Paola Minoia is a senior university lecturer in development studies at the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on international aid, environment politics, water and natural resource management, local knowledge and identities, local evaluation of environment and climate change, environmental justice, civil society dis/empowerment, environmental migration and tourism gentrification.