Urgent Keystones of Phuket’s Cruise Tourism Development: Challenge or Surrender

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the potentials of Phuket’s cruise tourism management and to propose the urgent keystones of Phuket’s cruise tourism development. The empirical approach for data collection using questionnaire was collected from 400 cruise passengers who visited Phuket port. The data were analyzed by using T-test, gap analysis and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). Results revealed from Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) that destination safety, climate & sea condition, passenger terminal, toilet, waiting area, parking lot, temporary pontoon, public transportation, port security, traffic management at port, carrying capacity of tourist attraction, and welcome ceremony at port were the attributes with low potentials. The urgent keystones for policy makers were suggested to focus on four major issues which are port infrastructure & facility, destination safety practices, accessibility and sustainable tourism products and services. The results can be used to formulate and implement marketing strategies to enchant cruise passengers and manage the tourism destination's competitive development and advantages against business competitors. For this study, the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.