Cruise Tourism in Bar Harbor, Maine: An Analysis of Likelihood of Passenger Return and Passenger Expenditures in Port

Cruise lines and their passengers provide a large economic impact to many coastal areas of the United States. The town of Bar Harbor, Maine, has recently emerged as a popular port-of-call on New England autumn and summer cruises. The goal of this research is to provide information on the behavior of cruise ship passengers in Bar Harbor, to better understand that facet of the local tourism market. A data set consisting of survey responses from 1,080 cruise ship passengers in Bar Harbor is used to perform the analysis in this study. A Logit model is used to predict the probability of passenger return to Bar Harbor, and an Ordinary Least Squares model of passenger expenditures in port is also constructed. The results from these models suggest that habit persistence and distance play a significant role in determining the likelihood of passenger return to Bar Harbor; and that plans for return travel and time spent in port are both important determinants in the level of passenger expenditures in port