Exploring Cruise Ship Passengers’ Spending Patterns in Two Uruguayan Ports of Call

The cruise industry has become a significant component of the Uruguayan tourism economy in the last few years. The present study aims to provide a better understanding of the cruise industry by considering the expenditure of cruise ship passengers disembarking in the ports of call of Montevideo and Punta del Este as a key variable in the economic analysis of the cost and benefits. We estimate two cross-sectional regression models for the cruise expenditures, showing that the group size the visitors travel with and the mobility the visitors have within the country are the most important variables to explain individual expenditure behaviour. Also, we include some managerial recommendations that policy makers could implement in order to improve the economic profits derived from cruise ship tourism