The US federal budgetary funds for construction and maintenance of a port are often linked to factors such as transportation cost saving and total tonnage, but seldom to the number of passenger served. In light of the popularity of passenger cruise ships, it is essential for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to explore and incorporate cruise ports in the scope of regional economic study so a standardized and objective assessment can be provided. However, while greater economic impacts are used for marketing purposes, the results alone may not well serve the local stakeholders and the public who also care about the social awareness of environmental issues, conflicts of interest alongside the value-added chain, and responsible cruise tourism in the local community. Externality and implicit economic costs and benefits are often neglected in the formation of impact studies to truly serve all parties involved.
This port study aims to rethink the concept of how cruise activities is measured in the impact analysis in a way to incorporate key qualitative information such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general and environment management and planning in particular. For instance, governance structure of the organization of a cruise port, employees’ education and training practices of a major cruise line, green policy implementation regarding air emission, energy consumption, and waste management for all parties involved in the cruise value-added chain, etc. will be taken into consideration while assessing the economic impact.
PortEconomics member Grace Wang,Wen-Huei Chang (US Army Corp of Engineering) and Yue Cui (Michigan State University) are firstly offering a theoretical framework to tailor cruise economic impact platform and secondly providing a quantitative metric to measure environmental responsibility and social awareness to pursue responsible tourism and sustainable cruising. The findings will also contribute to a greater application of climate change mitigation in the maritime industry, and provide a concrete measure of adaption plan.
The paper has been presented in the International Association of Maritime Economists 2018 Conference (IAME2018) held 11-14 September, Mombasa, Kenya. Paper and presentation can be downloaded via PortEconomics.
