Identification and Differentiation of the Hierarchical Structure of the Caribbean Cruise Shipping Network Based on Route Organization

Abstract

In recent years, with the continuous expansion of the global cruise tourism market, global and regional cruise shipping networks have gradually formed and improved. Among them, the Caribbean cruise shipping network is particularly mature and complex, with a typical regional spatial organization. This paper takes cruise routes as the starting point to analyze the basic characteristics of the Caribbean cruise shipping network, investigate their hierarchical structure and spatial differentiation characteristics, and summarize the general spatial laws of a regional cruise shipping network. The results show that Caribbean cruise routes are mostly circular, and some of them have multi-circular sections. Medium and short cruise routes are common, and most cruise routes usually include sailings that last for a week. The cruise network forms an inverted V shape with the Florida Peninsula as the core connecting the eastern and western Caribbean Seas. There are differences in the number of sailings and centrality of different ports, thus forming the functional differentiation of core hub ports, functional hub ports, and general ports. The Caribbean cruise shipping network is divided into different hierarchies; with the increasing complexity of hierarchies, the numbers of ports and shipping groups have increased, the number of sailings and the centrality show rising trends, and the structure of the cruise shipping network tends to be complicated and the coverage tends to be broad. The three hierarchies basically reflect the core, skeleton, and overall pattern of the Caribbean regional cruise shipping network, and the core hierarchy includes most of the core hub ports.