Trans RINA, Vol 157, Part C1, Intl J Marine Design, Jan - Dec 2015 EXPLORING CRUISE EXPERIENCE THROUGH ACTOR-NETWORKS OF THE
CRUISE SHIP ENVIRONMENT (DOI No. 103940/rina.ijmd.2015.c1.36)
M K Ahola, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland H Salovuori, Aalto University School of Business, Finland M J Lehtonen, The University of Tokyo, Japan
SUMMARY
The cruise ship environment contains multiple human and non-human characteristics that together contribute to the cruise experience. Although many of these characteristics are identified separately, less research attention has been paid to the investigation of the cruise experience as an entity, and interconnectivity between its various characteristics. A qualitative study was conducted in an authentic passenger ship environment in order to document the characteristics passengers perceive as contributing to the cruise experience. Instead of seeing experiences as belonging to the human domain, this article also brings in non-human actors by drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT). ANT is applied to illustrate how experiences emerge and are being constituted within the passenger ship environment. Three actor-network illustrations are used: social experiencing, everyday distinction and predictability. This article proposes that people and things become entangled via processes of translation and that the shared aims that concurrently bring actors together can be used as design drivers of the ship environment.
1. INTRODUCTION
The comprehensive understanding of the ship as a socio- technical system has gained research interest lately [2, 21, 28, 38]. Many scholars have identified the pivotal importance of a more detailed understanding of the interaction between humans and their environment in the design process. For example, the interaction between the environment and tourism has been studied widely [27, 40, and 49]. Furthermore, prior research has identified the importance of the environment to the shopping experience [54, 55], health care [6, 16], and safety [2, 50]. Additionally, the significance of green spaces in urban experience has also been highlighted [7, 37, and 52]. However, to our knowledge studies on human-cruise ship-interaction have been limited. This shortcoming should be covered, as at the core of this remarkable leisure industry of a total value of 36.3 billion US dollars in year 2013 [15]
is
passengers’ cruise experience, which can be achieved through a better understanding of environment interaction.
the desire to maximise the the human-
The cruise ship environment has been defined in many ways: for example as a unique experience that provides a total escape, safe transportation to exotic destinations, Vegas-style entertainment, luxurious pampering, quality food, innovative on board features and awe-inspiring aesthetics [23]. According to Huang & Hsu [24] the cruise experience can also be defined in terms of intrinsic benefits
or obtained as a result
psychological of
outcomes that customers taking a cruise vacation.
Furthermore, experiences are highly affected by the surrounding elements, as the experience itself serves as an individual evaluation of activity influenced by a stimulus from a particular product or service; it is always relevant and has a significant effect on emotions [22]. Correspondingly, Nawijn et
al. [41] concluded that © 2015: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects
emotions are short lived and change according to the environmental stimuli. Thus, the cruise experience is an offering supported with products and services included in the cruise setting. In other words an experiential product that merges tangible (sensory) and intangible (symbolic) attributes is co-created by the consumer and the marketer to create an offering that is pleasurable, meaningful and memorable [29]. Fundamentally, cruise vacations are a prototypical floating
resort restaurant,
experiential hotel,
food court,
product: a combination of sightseeing
vessel, gourmet nightclub, shopping centre, entertainment complex and recreation facility [28].
It becomes evident from the above discussion that the cruise experience emerges from both human and non- humans. However, prior studies about user experiences (UX) in a cruise context
[21, 23, 28, 38, and 61]
investigated the complex socio-technical environment from the social perspective, where humans and non- humans are seldom evaluated as heterogeneous elements. However, it is also important that human and non-human needs are
studied equally to understand the
interconnectivity and relationships between them. This kind of approach is customary to Actor-Network Theory (ANT) [see e.g. 9, 31, 32, 34, 36] and has been successfully used to describe tourism processes [see e.g. 26, 57, 61]. For example Paget et tourism in following: within and across
al. ‘‘actor-networks different societies and transport-systems, accommodation and
[45] captures connecting, regions, facilities,
resources, environments, technologies, and people and organizations’’ (p. 967). Following the success of these studies, this research draws on ANT to understand the process of people’s cruise experience. This sociological approach describes various phenomena and relationships where human and non-human actors are involved [36]. This is particularly relevant for studying experience phenomena because it acknowledges human and non-
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