For the international cruise companies operating in China market, it is crucial to know who would be the potential passengers and what kinds of the demographic characteristics and demands they have in order to group the right profitable segments. The cruise motivation is a critical psychographic factor of consumer behaviour. The purpose of this study is to recognise what are the main motivations for the potential Chinese passenger to take the cruise, in this way to make the segmentation and also to discern what are the different demands for various customer segments in cruise travelling.The theoretical study of this research mainly comprises three parts, namely, the customer behaviour, market segmentation as well as market targeting. The empirical research of this study used the quantitative research method. The questionnaire was developed in English and translated into simplified Chinese. The collection of 300 mainland Chinese citizens answered the questionnaire and thus separating them into two parts based on their motivation, namely, the "Potential passenger" and the "Non-passenger". After doing the cluster analysis, the findings indicate that there were two distinct sub-groups, namely, the high and medium motivated potential passengers with their unique characteristics in relation to their demographic characteristics and cruise behavioural preferences. Meanwhile, the reasons why the people do not wish to take the cruise are also illustrated. Finally, there are the practical suggestions for the international cruise companies to target the profitable potential passenger segments.
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