Paste In the domestic and international tourism activity a wide range of forms are practiced for tourist arrangements, determined by the ways of satisfying the need for tourism, the conditions for achieving the offer-demand balance and the particularities of the organization of the trip. In many places there are opportunities to practice special forms of tourism based on interesting or unusual local attractions.
Cruise tourism represents, through its content and role, a characteristic phenomenon of today's civilization, one of the major components of economic and social life that polarizes the interest of an increasing number of countries(Mincu,2005).
Being receptive to contemporary world transformations, cruise tourism evolves below their incidence, their dynamics being integrated with the general development process (Mincu,2005).
In turn, the vast human potential and material that it engenders in its development, as well as the beneficial effects on the areas where cruise tourism interferes, acts as a stimulating factor for progress.
Many of the world's countries are currently looking at cruise tourism as an important element in their development strategies.
Cruise tourism also produces direct effects (net income of economic agents) and indirectly by boosting the other branches and sectors of the economy, a so-called multiplier effect of tourism.
1.1. Conceptual classifications. Short history
The current evolution of cruise tourism is characterized by a permanent renewal of tourist offer especially by developing a new range of new tourist products, both qualitatively and quantitatively superior.
PHOTO 1.1Wikimedia Commons.The RMS Titanic at Southampton Docks
Water transport, as a way to travel to tourist destinations, though it has a long history, is less used due to its characteristics.
Firstly, it is the slower speed and the high prices, secondly, the use of these means is conditioned by the existence of adequate ports and fleets, expensive components, the development of which requires major investment efforts, thirdly, it should be pointed out that only a small part of the tourist destinations is located in the vicinity of the moorings, and hence the need to continue the journey by other means.
In this context, nautical tourism has evolved from a simple form of travel to one that combines leisure travel, giving birth to cruises.
If at first, because of the high prices, cruises were the privilege of high-income social classes, in time they became accessible to wider segments of tourist customers.
This was possible as a result of technological developments that allowed, on the one hand, the reduction of operating and appropriate costs of prices and, on the other, a diversification of ship production in terms of type, capacity , comfort, safety, with effects on the provision of such means and the wider supply of services.
Consistent with these developments, but especially due to the benefits of cruises as a way of spending the holiday – total relaxation, fun, comfort and safety, the shipbuilding market is constantly expanding; the rhythms of increasing demand for this form of travel have been overtaken in the last decade only by air travel.
The services offered to shippers in the field of shipping can be subdivided into (Holloway J Ch, 1994):
– line (s),
– cruise lines,
– short trips (ferries) or mini-cruises,
– trips (trips) inside the rivers, lakes, canals,
– individual voyages with recreational, private or rented vessels.
Although all types of benefits are found in tourist travel, they have different importance, and some of them, such as individual pleasure boat trips, should rather be considered as recreational services. Also, in a broad sense, the cruise line includes both cruise lines and inland voyages on rivers, lakes and canals, or short trips.
Lately, tourism has acted with a multitude of factors, which have turned its evolution towards becoming a mass phenomenon. Particularly, cruise tourism, once accessible only to high-income social classes, has changed in the face of various factors, becoming a mass product for the general public. Meanwhile, a technology model and a holiday choice.
Cruise tourism has several functions: commercial, leisure, political and social. By facilitating links between states, better communication is achieved and trade is developing. The most important function of cruise tourism seems to be recreational, relaxing. Generally, people turn to cruise ships on vacation to offer memorable moments, trying to combine as comfortable as possible the need to travel with the craving for knowledge.
1.2 Diverse package of cruise services
Photo 1.2: The Sea Dream at Virgin Gorda Sound in the Caribbean
The cruise is a tourist product (holiday package) consisting of the party staying on board a specially designed vessel, offering travelers not only an ordinary maritime voyage, but also some special treatments and recreational conditions, as well as visits to ports and localities outside the country's borders, according to the pre-established route.
The cruise can be both a distinct tourist product and a component part thereof, in the form of a complete circuit or as a journey along an initial route, the result of the association and independence between the visited areas of interest and the services base and additional shipboard shipments.
Basic services are no longer sufficient to determine the potential tourist to purchase a tourist product, regardless of its type. Additional services are those that have a determining role in selecting a destination or cruise ship.
Compared to traditional holidays, the cruise offers clear benefits, the most obvious of which is the change of decoration every day. At the same time, it allows for long distances to be missed and visits to places of a very diverse nature, culture and civilization. That's why cruises have the highest percentage of satisfied customers than any other type of vacation.
As the cruise extends over a longer period of time, passengers enter in contact with different types of people around the world and with varied lifestyles, which shows the social side of this tourism.
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