A cruise, meaning a travel on a ship where one visit a number of places is a form of holiday alternative that has grown rapidly the last decade. Royal Caribbean International (RCI) is the largest actor on the Swedish market and is now changing its target market strategy. The company is transitioning its focus from the old traditional more affluent clientele, to target a wider span of customers where the people between 30 and 50 years of age are in focus and have become the main target group. Therefore activities aboard are added to suit these customers specifically. What the authors of this thesis want to find out by using both interviews and questionnaires is whether the general opinion about cruising is coherent with the message that Royal Caribbean International is trying to convey. The authors also want to know if the targeting efforts are optimal when trying to alter people’s mindset and attract a new type of younger customers. According to the performed survey, the brand awareness of RCI was best within the main target group. The most efficient media vehicle in communicating RCI’s brand has been brochures followed by newspapers and word of mouth. Somewhat surprisingly neither TV nor Internet was among top three of the most awareness creating media vehicles. Through these media vehicles RCI tries to convey that younger people are now more in focus. However, people older than 50 are the most positive towards going on a cruise themselves. At the same time the whole population seem to think that cruising is best suited for people older than 50. No matter how old the respondents to the questionnaire were they believed that cruising was better suited for people older than themselves. The population is getting older and the proportion of people over 50 years will increase dramatically compared to younger people within the next decades. Still RCI is focusing on adding activities and market themselves towards a younger group. Family behavior is changing and people tend to start a family later. RCI is therefore targeting families to a greater extent in order to attract the young but at the same time retain the older and proportionally growing customers groups. Cruise prices have decreased and RCI is now more than ever not only targeting more affluent people. It is supposed to be afforded by a wide span. Even so, people tend to think that cruising is better suited for high-income takers. At the same time it is widely associated with luxury, not affordability. Associations to cruising are overall positive but they are not necessarily exactly the ones that RCI is trying to communicate the most. Some perceptions are in line with the message RCI are trying to convey while others are based on the established prejudices that surrounds the cruise line industry and that are hard to erase. Even though people typically see cruising as something positive, they are still according to this study not to any great extent considering going on a cruise.

<p>A cruise, meaning a travel on a ship where one visit a number of places is a form of holiday alternative that has grown rapidly the last decade.</p><p>Royal Caribbean International (RCI) is the largest actor on the Swedish market and is now changing its target market strategy. The company is transitioning its focus from the old traditional more affluent clientele, to target a wider span of customers where the people between 30 and 50 years of age are in focus and have become the main target group. Therefore activities aboard are added to suit these customers specifically.</p><p>What the authors of this thesis want to find out by using both interviews and questionnaires is whether the general opinion about cruising is coherent with the message that Royal Caribbean International is trying to convey. The authors also want to know if the targeting efforts are optimal when trying to alter people’s mindset and attract a new type of younger customers.</p><p>According to the performed survey, the brand awareness of RCI was best within the main target group. The most efficient media vehicle in communicating RCI’s brand has been brochures followed by newspapers and word of mouth. Somewhat surprisingly neither TV nor Internet was among top three of the most awareness creating media vehicles.</p><p>Through these media vehicles RCI tries to convey that younger people are now more in focus. However, people older than 50 are the most positive towards going on a cruise themselves. At the same time the whole population seem to think that cruising is best suited for people older than 50. No matter how old the respondents to the questionnaire were they believed that cruising was better suited for people older than themselves.</p><p>The population is getting older and the proportion of people over 50 years will increase dramatically compared to younger people within the next decades. Still RCI is focusing on adding activities and market themselves towards a younger group. Family behavior is changing and people tend to start a family later. RCI is therefore targeting families to a greater extent in order to attract the young but at the same time retain the older and proportionally growing customers groups.</p><p>Cruise prices have decreased and RCI is now more than ever not only targeting more affluent people. It is supposed to be afforded by a wide span. Even so, people tend to think that cruising is better suited for high-income takers. At the same time it is widely associated with luxury, not affordability.</p><p>Associations to cruising are overall positive but they are not necessarily exactly the ones that RCI is trying to communicate the most. Some perceptions are in line with the message RCI are trying to convey while others are based on the established prejudices that surrounds the cruise line industry and that are hard to erase. Even though people typically see cruising as something positive, they are still according to this study not to any great extent considering going on a cruise.</p>

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Continuous improvement is a process that every company is focused on incremental and continuous innovation that can be achieved through organizational learning, in accordance with the standards of accreditation. Organizational learning, in turn, is the process by which knowledge and core values of an organization can contribute to the implementation of a model for Quality Management (QM). The identification of the relationship between these three factors: Continuous Improvement, Organizational Learning and QM model within a logistic chain can contribute to the elimination of barriers that compromise the quality of processes and products in this chain. In this line the present research aims to identify the relationship between maturity of continuous improvement, organizational learning and accreditation of the quality management system in the white line industry, on the 1st and 2nd levels of the logistic chain. The methodology for data collection was based on the performance of a qualitative research within three companies in the state of CearÃ. The first company is the main company on the logistic chain and the other two are deemed to be of 1st and 2nd level of the logistic chain. The data was obtained through interviews guided by three closed and structured questionnaires, namely: Guide for verification of continuous improvement in the organization, Diagnosis of the level of organizational excellence in continuous improvement and Constructo Quality Management. It was found in this study, among other results, that the maturity of the management system is directly related to maturity on continuous improvement and that the time of accreditation is positively linked to organizational learning. / Melhoria ContÃnua à um processo em que toda empresa à focada na inovaÃÃo incremental e contÃnua, que pode ser alcanÃada atravÃs da Aprendizagem Organizacional, em conformidade com as normas de certificaÃÃo. A aprendizagem organizacional, por sua vez, à o processo pelo qual o conhecimento e os valores bÃsicos de uma organizaÃÃo podem contribuir para a implantaÃÃo de um modelo de GestÃo pela Qualidade (GQ). A identificaÃÃo do relacionamento entre esses trÃs fatores: Melhoria ContÃnua, Aprendizagem Organizacional e modelo de GQ dentro de uma mesma cadeia produtiva pode contribuir para a eliminaÃÃo de barreiras que comprometam a qualidade dos processos e produtos dessa cadeia. Nessa linha o presente trabalho tem como objetivo identificar as relaÃÃes entre maturidade da melhoria contÃnua, aprendizagem organizacional e certificaÃÃo do sistema de gestÃo da qualidade na indÃstria de linha branca, nos nÃveis 1 e 2 da cadeia produtiva. A metodologia adotada para a coleta de dados teve como base a realizaÃÃo de uma pesquisa qualitativa, do tipo estudo de caso, realizada em trÃs empresas do estado do CearÃ, sendo que a primeira empresa à a principal da cadeia e as outras duas sÃo consequentemente consideradas de 1 e 2 nÃvel da cadeia produtiva. Para a obtenÃÃo dos resultados, foram realizadas entrevistas, constando de trÃs questionÃrios estruturados e fechados, sendo eles: Guia para verificaÃÃo da melhoria contÃnua na organizaÃÃo, DiagnÃstico do nÃvel de excelÃncia organizacional em melhoria contÃnua e Constructo GestÃo da Qualidade. Foi constatado nesta pesquisa, dentre outros resultados que a maturidade do sistema de gestÃo està diretamente relacionada à maturidade na melhoria contÃnua e que o tempo de certificaÃÃo està ligado positivamente à aprendizagem organizacional.

This final thesis deals with cruises and cruise line industry in general. The first chapter describes cruises and highlights their particulars. The second chapter analyzes all the available statistics (secondary data) that depict the role of cruise line industry in the field of tourism (fleet, cruise lines, passengers, destinations, ports, economic impact). As for the primary research, I created a questionnaire to determine the requirements of respondents for an ideal cruise. I have conducted a mystery shopping, together with a personal interview with an employee of an travel agent's to analyze the state of the market and the sale of cruises both in Czech and Slovak Republic. The last chapter discusses the current and future trends in the cruise industry. The results of this thesis confirm the hypothesis that Czech Republic and Slovakia have the potential to attract customers and bring potential customers.