The impact of tangible/intangible cues on luxury cruise travelers' well-being perception

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to examine the role of tangible/intangible cues in enhancing luxury cruise travelers' well-being perception, and (2) to investigate the causal relationship between cruise travelers' well-being perception, perceived price fairness, and word of mouth intentions. Based on a thorough literature review, 11 potential hypotheses were derived. During the hypotheses development process, it was suggested that cruise passengers' hedonism can play a moderating function in the relationship between well-being perception and perceived price fairness. Integrating the proposed hypotheses, a structural model was proposed. The proposed structural model was tested using the data collected from 257 luxury cruise passengers in the United States. Data analysis results provide key findings. First, it was revealed that tangible cues (food quality and spatial layout) and intangible cues (service quality, entertainment, brand prestige) enhance the cruise passenger's well-being perception, which leads to relatively high level of perceived price fairness and word of mouth intentions. More importantly, it was revealed that hedonism played a moderating role in the relationship between well-being perception and perceived price fairness. Based on the data analysis results theoretical/practical implications were discussed in the later part of this research paper. This research is expected to provide guidelines for future cruise research.