Strategies for improving cruise product sales using hybrid 'multiple criteria decision making' models

Abstract

As airlines have shifted to decommission policies, selling cruise products has become a growing trend in the travel industry. However, few studies have discussed this issue or proposed strategies to help improve sales for travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to address this problem, using the novel method of hybrid multiple criteria decision making, including decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), the DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje), to present optimal improvement models, which are superior in identifying both an influential network and a priority sequence of dimensions/criteria related to selling cruises. The findings provide useful schemes for decision makers according to the priorities of influential weightings from high to low or the sequence of gap values to aspired level from low to high.