Explaining cruisers’ shore expenditure through a latent class tobit model: Evidence from the Canary Islands

Abstract

This study analyzes the expenditure patterns of cruise ship passengers during stopovers in the Canary Islands, which is a key variable for evaluating the economic impact of this type of tourism from the point of view of local key stakeholders and residents. Information on cruisers’ expenditure was collected in each port of call by survey responses for six cruise seasons, during the period 2001–2015. Through a latent class model in a framework of censured regression, three distinct groups of passengers were identified. This approach fills a gap in the empirical tourism literature in order to achieve more accurate results to deal with cruise travelers’ heterogeneity. Moreover, the identification of these homogeneous groups is important so as to better design policies that allow for higher tourism economic impact onshore. Our findings suggest that it would be ideal to attract more class 1 cruise passengers.