Cruise passengers' expenditure at destinations: Review of survey techniques and data collection

Spending by cruise passengers constitutes an important contribution to the economy of destinations. The issues related to the analysis of the expenditure have been widely debated for many years both in the scientific literature and in the common political debate. Despite 20 years of empirical research on this topic, not consolidated quantification methods exist to inform the debate. This work offers a brief review of the principal research on cruise tourist spending. It analyses the main characteristics of the surveys, reviews the different methods and techniques employed as well as assesses the main results. The article concludes with a discussion of the studies conducted and identifies future research directions.