A Cruise Ship Itinerary Planning Model for Passenger Satisfaction

This study developed an optimization model, defined as the IPS (Itinerary for Passenger Satisfaction), for a cruise ship to identify an itinerary that maximizes passenger satisfaction. A 0-1 integer programming model was developed to provide an optimal sequence of ports of call, assigning a destination to each day of the cruise. The concepts of the destination access network and the neighborhood of a destination were designed and manipulated to organize the complex network of destinations so that each next destination is selected within a practical overnight sail. The developed model can also be viewed as a reduced variant of the traveling salesperson problem with less constraints. A set of example tests shows that practical scenarios of the IPS with moderate cruise duration can be easily solved with light computation loads. Considering cruise ship passengers usually make their decisions not relying on only one destination but on an itinerary in its entirety, the purpose of this study was to identify itinerary alternatives to attract potential cruise passengers for attaining maximum occupancy level.