Trying to exploit the significant benefits associated with homeporting, several cruise ports are mobilised to establishing homeport operations. This goal is subject to a variety of factors, both internal and external one.
A new port study by PortEconomics member George Vaggelas, co-authored by Spyros Niavis (University of Thessaly), defines the parameters and elements that affect the potential of a cruise port to become a homeport. The study, published in the third issue of first volume of the scholarly journal Maritime Business Review, incorporates an ordinal regression model linking the likelihood of ports to attract homeport traffic with seven explanatory variables. The model has been applied in a sample of 47 Mediterranean cruise ports and the results unveil which factors that are of crucial importance for the attractiveness of a cruise homeport.
The study concludes that the connectivity of the cruise port with its hinterland, the presence of adequate port infrastructure, i.e. infrastructure able to facilitate mega cruise ships, and the engagement of the private sector in port services provision, are among the most important factors.
The authors’ version of the port study can be freely downloaded @ PortEconomics.
