AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

Tourism industry in Iceland has been growing incredibly fast during the past years. Cruise industry growth rate too has been very high, as Iceland continues gaining popularity as a cruise destination. Nevertheless, though certain amount of research has been made in this sphere, it doesn’t cover all of the important issues. This research is intended to examine one of them. The main goal of the research is to study cruise passengers coming to Iceland through their segmentation and to learn about marketing practices directed to them. Qualitative research method was used in the research. Personal interviews were chosen as means of collecting information in order to gain better insight of the participants’ perspective. The researcher took interviews with 10 people from different companies who interact with cruise passengers on regular basis at their working place. The researcher aimed to get an understanding about how these people experience differences between cruise passengers. It was also intended to learn which ways of marketing tourist products and services are considered the best by interviewees. The main findings reveal that participants feel the strongest difference between cruise passengers of different nationalities, passengers coming on different ships (size and type), and passengers coming during different time of the year. What concerns marketing towards cruise passengers, it’s almost exclusively carried out through the Internet. A good website, search engine optimization and word-of-mouth being participants’ most preferred methods. Value of these findings lies in gathering knowledge about who actually the customers are, how they differ, what they expect, and how it is better to reach them. Answering these questions makes it easier to deliver superior value to them. Á Íslandi hefur ferðaiðnaðurinn stækkað mjög mikið undanfarin ár. Komur skemmtiferðaskipa hafa jafnframt aukist mjög mikið, þar sem Ísland verður æ vinsælli áfangastaður farþega skemmtiferðaskipa. Þrátt fyrir að nokkrar rannsóknir hafi verið gerðar, er eins og þær nái ekki yfir öll mikilvægustu atriðin. Megin markmið þessarar rannsóknar er að bæta úr með því að skoða markaðshlutun farþega skemmtiferðaskipa sem koma til Íslands og hvers konar markaðssetningu er beint að þeim. Í rannsókninni var notuð eiginleg aðferð. Tekin voru einstaklingsviðtöl við 10 einstaklinga frá fyrirtækjum sem eiga í samskiptum við farþega skemmtaferðaskipa reglulega. Stefnt var að því að fá skilning á því hvernig þessir einstaklingar upplifa mismun á milli farþega skemmtiferðaskipa. Einnig að komast að því hvaða markaðsetning varnings og þjónustu til ferðamanna væri best að þeirra mati. Megin niðurstöður voru að viðmælendur verða varir við mestan mun farþega eftir þjóðerni, skipi (stærð og tegund) og eftir því hvaða hluta árs farþegar koma. Hvað varðar markaðsetningu sem beint er að farþegum skemmtiferðaskipa, er hún nánast einvörðu á veraldarvefnum. Góð vefsíða, leitavélarbestun og orðspor fyrirtækis eru helstu aðferðirnar. Gildi þessara niðurstaða felst í því að…