Note on the source. This source should be read with caution: it may be funded by the sector, a draft or a thesis, or rely on self-reported or modelled data. See the limitations below.
The question
How can the use of information technology transform port-city governance to manage cruise flows, and what conceptual framework can organise the network of actors in a cruise destination?
The method
Conceptual paper based on a literature review and a collection of good practices (8 European projects, 2005-2020); it proposes a network governance model and the use of a decision support system (DSS), without empirical data. It reports partial results of an ongoing doctoral research project.
What the study finds
- The authors separate 'hard' interventions (physical works such as waterfront regeneration, which take long and need large investment) from 'soft' ones (management and communication choices), and claim, without supporting data, that governance based on services and intangible infrastructure can achieve results comparable to physical works.
- The authors observe that there is still no system joining up city, port and ship: studies on service personalisation deal with either the urban setting or the ship, not both.
- In the authors' view, the port-city imbalance stems from the destination's carrying capacity rather than from port size: places of different scale such as Venice and Dubrovnik face the same problems.
- Among next steps, the authors point to the need to define more clearly which data stakeholders should exchange, and to tackle standards, security and privacy before building the platform.
It proposes tackling cruise pressure on cities through organisational and information tools before new physical works. The key point is that benefits for each actor depend on the quality of collaboration and data exchange between port, city and operators during the few hours of a call.
Limitations
A purely conceptual contribution: the DSS and the platform are neither described nor tested, and the authors present the model as a 'model to think with' rather than an explanatory one. No empirical validation.
Carciotti, S., Marin, A., Ukovich, W. (2019). Smart Cruise Destination: an innovative network governance framework. PORTUSplus – the Journal of RETE, N. 8 (Special Issue 'Governance in Port City Regions'), RETE Publisher, Venezia, ISSN 2039-6422.
Read the original study ↗Summary written by the ODYBOAT Observatory in our own words. Tables and figures belong to the authors.