COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN AND SPANISH CRUISE PASSENGERS' BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS

ABSTRACT Earlier studies of cross-national differences in consumer behavior in different consumption sectors have verified that cultural differences have a strong influence on consumers. Despite the importance of cross-national analysis, no studies in the literature examine the moderating effects of nationality on the construction of behavioral intentions and their antecedents among cruise line passengers. This study investigates the moderating effects of nationality on the relationships between perceived value, satisfaction, trust and behavioral intentions among Spanish and (U.S.) American passengers of cruise lines that use Barcelona as home port and port-of-call. A theoretical model was tested with a total of 968 surveys. Structural equation models (SEMs) were used, by means of a multigroup analysis. Results of this study indicated that Spaniards showed stronger relationships between trust and behavioral intentions, and between emotional value and satisfaction. Americans presented stronger relationships between service quality and satisfaction, and between service quality and behavioral intentions.

MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF INFLUENZA B VIRUS OUTBREAK ON A CRUISE SHIP IN BRAZIL 2012

In February 2012, an outbreak of respiratory illness occurred on the cruise ship MSC Armonia in Brazil. A 31-year-old female crew member was hospitalized with respiratory failure and subsequently died. To study the etiology of the respiratory illness, tissue taken at necropsy from the deceased woman and respiratory specimens from thirteen passengers and crew members with respiratory symptoms were analyzed. Influenza real-time RT-PCR assays were performed, and the full-length hemagglutinin (HA) gene of influenza-positive samples was sequenced. Influenza B virus was detected in samples from seven of the individuals, suggesting that it was the cause of this respiratory illness outbreak. The sequence analysis of the HA gene indicated that the virus was closely related to the B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus, Victoria lineage, a virus contained in the 2011-12 influenza vaccine for the Southern Hemisphere. Since the recommended composition of the influenza vaccine for use during the 2013 season changed, an intensive surveillance of viruses circulating worldwide is crucial. Molecular analysis is an important tool to characterize the pathogen responsible for an outbreak such as this. In addition, laboratory disease surveillance contributes to the control measures for vaccine-preventable influenza.

Cruise tourism in Lisbon - Cruise tourism activity and its impact on the city

Field lab: Tourism

Plantae Utowanae. Plants collected in Bermuda, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, Culebras, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Cuba, The Caymans, Cozumel, Yucatan and the Alacran shoals. Dec. 1898-Mar. 1899. The Antillean cruise of the yacht Utowana. Mr. Allison V. Armour, owner and master.

v.2:no.1(1900)

Plantae Utowanae. Plants collected in Bermuda, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, Culebras, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Cuba, The Caymans, Cozumel, Yucatan and the Alacran shoals. Dec. 1898-Mar. 1899. The Antillean cruise of the yacht Utowana. Mr. Allison V. Armour, owner and master.

v.2:no.2(1900)

Booze + Cruise = Loose, July 2009

This brochure is all about what happens if a person is pulling over by the police when drinking and driving.

Ethics, tourists and the environmental practices of the North American cruise ship industry: a comparison study of the ethical standards of Alaskan and Caribbean cruise ship tourists

Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 R43 S54 2005

Autonomous intelligent cruise control using a novel multiple-controller framework incorporating fuzzy-logic-based switching and tuning

This paper presents a novel intelligent multiple-controller framework incorporating a fuzzy-logic-based switching and tuning supervisor along with a generalised learning model (GLM) for an autonomous cruise control application. The proposed methodology combines the benefits of a conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, and a PID structure-based (simultaneous) zero and pole placement controller. The switching decision between the two nonlinear fixed structure controllers is made on the basis of the required performance measure using a fuzzy-logic-based supervisor, operating at the highest level of the system. The supervisor is also employed to adaptively tune the parameters of the multiple controllers in order to achieve the desired closed-loop system performance. The intelligent multiple-controller framework is applied to the autonomous cruise control problem in order to maintain a desired vehicle speed by controlling the throttle plate angle in an electronic throttle control (ETC) system. Sample simulation results using a validated nonlinear vehicle model are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the multiple-controller with respect to adaptively tracking the desired vehicle speed changes and achieving the desired speed of response, whilst penalising excessive control action. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The tourist cruise industry and its impact on South America

The global tourist cruise industry has been experiencing sustained growth for quite some time; the industry's future prospects are promising, due to good profitability and a reduction in costs achieved thanks to use of ever larger ships, which are making this new form of tourism accessible to more and more people.South American destinations have been visited by a wide range of cruise operators, reflecting the expansion of this industry worldwide; it is necessary that players in the industry take advantage of this opportunity to provide services that employ substantial numbers of people and develop port facilities in order to meet the requirements of ships and tourists alike, thereby heading off competition from other routes.