Adrift At Sea: The State Of Research On Cruise Tourism And The International Cruise Industry

Research on cruise tourism and the cruise industry is relatively recent given the "newness" of the cruise industry—it has been only 35 years since Carnival Corporation introduced its first purposebuilt cruise ship. The number of publications has been until recently relatively small and has fallen into two distinct categories. The overwhelming majority of published work is "performative" (technical or practical) in nature; only a small number are "emancipatory." The article looks at the state of cruise research and considers factors that have influenced the growth in, and nature of, cruise research, including the two streams. Looking to the future, it foresees cruise research emerging as a distinct discipline within the academy, and makes recommendations that facilitate this.