FRAMING CRUISE TOURISM
FRAMING CRUISE TOURISM

Summary/Abstract: Cruise tourism is a relatively new form of tourism, but researchers in the field agree that this specific form of tourism is one of the most dynamics. They also remark that, despite this, the academic literature is rather poor and many relevant topics necessary for a good understanding of this phenomenon are not yet approached by researchers. The present paper aims to reflect the place of cruise tourism both in the frame of tourism sector, and in the academic literature on tourism. The investigation of the evolutions of tourism in the last years shows that the rhythm of development of cruise tourism slowed down compared with the growth of tourism sector in general. Since the 1980s, when the cruise tourism registered a significant development, the academic interest also increased continuously. The current interest in cruise tourism is significantly smaller than in other forms of tourism. The paper investigates only the research included in high-impact academic journals on tourism. Most researchers investigating this specific form of tourism come from South East Asia (especially China and Hong Kong), followed by European researchers, despite that most of the cruise tourists come from the United States. The topics investigated in top-indexed tourism journals refer mostly to tourists’ behavior.

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