Cruise ports and cruise firms: the role of strategic alliances and governance choices

The paper seeks to deepen the argument on the development of marinas in the cruise business, focusing on the growing interest that the cruise operators have now toward decisions that require strategic alliances and agreements with those who manage the cruise port and, even more generally, to the entire supply chain, to create a unique cruise product, the result of multiple products, whose value is sharing of the same resources that the various parties can achieve. The choice of this topic has been dictated by the development and interest that is having the cruise industry that, for dynamism and prospects, is causing deep changes in the whole scenario in the world tourism industry. The cruise industry, in fact, is increasingly becoming an industry that attracts huge investments, and different actors, every day, seem to have a growing interest in decisions concerning new forms of productive organization and working arrangements for the implementation of innovative strategic choices. The cruise industry appears as a sector in constant evolution, characterized by strong processes of change, both in terms of choice in demand and in organizationofthe offer, representing an industry constantly seeking at its own dynamic equilibrium. On this line, there are several Italian and foreign ports that have directed their investments to both structural and organizational changes, revising their strategies and implementing the development of new strategic plans together with the main national and international cruise operators.