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Research Outline

Prepared for Glacier | Delivered October 23, 2019

Cruise Purchase Drivers

Goals

To understand the purchase drivers for cruise consumers. If available, information should be relevant to European consumers who purchase European cruises. Examples of the kind of information being asked for are an understanding of whether purchase decisions are mostly driven by price and an analysis of the factors that can influence a prospective customer to make a purchase. Additionally, to find examples of digital campaigns (global/not Europe) related to travel (ideally, cruises) that showcase a high quality of SEO, SEM or funnel retargeting.

Early Findings

Cruise Consumers

  • An international survey of cruise goers found that the following factors influence their vacation choices: destination (60%), overall experience (20%), property/ship (17%), cost (33%) and amenities (5%).
  • Europe and the Mediterranean the sixth and eighth most popular destinations for cruise goers, globally.
  • Among cruise goers, those who use a travel agent are more likely to cruise again than those who do not.
  • Cruise goers are more satisfied with their experience when its booked by a travel agent.

Digital Campaign Example

  • Epic Cruises of Toronto launched a search engine marketing campaign that involved analyzing their competitors, using organic and paid search engine marketing, and using email and phone lead tracking tools. The campaign efforts resulted in 700 leads generated in four months with a conversion rate of 5.2%. Details about this campaign can be found in the slideshow on this web page. 

Results of Initial Research

  • It appears there are some case studies/examples available that show digital campaigns for the travel/cruise industry (non-Europe) that focus on things like SEO, SEM and funnel retargeting. However, many of these examples seem to be more high level. Despite this, we should be able to come up with 2-3 solid case studies that address this.
  • Information regarding the purchase drivers and barriers for cruise consumers, especially for European consumers who purchase European cruises is severely lacking within the public domain. This is because the majority of available information about European cruises focuses on European cruise consumers as a whole, not specifically European consumers of European cruises. Additionally, when it comes to analyzing things like purchase drivers for this topic, the majority of available information focuses on cruises in general (non-geo-specific) and cruise consumers in general (non-geo-specific). However, this type generalized information can logically be applied to the European market, and therefore, may still be relevant in helping to gain perspective related to purchase drivers.