Jennifer Holland

Navigating uncertainty: Tourists' perceptions of risk in ocean cruising. 

Social understanding of risk has become increasingly prominent in the last two decades, reflecting a growing concern with societal and global uncertainty. Understanding how tourists feel about risk is crucial because the presence of risk, whether real or perceived, has the potential to change tourist decision-making. However, risk is not well understood in travel, and particularly limited in relation to cruise holidays. This thesis explored tourists’ perceptions of risk for ocean cruising, and the potential influence on tourist decision-making. Situated in an interpretivist ontology and a constructivist epistemology, focus groups and interviews were conducted in the UK with both cruisers and non-cruisers. Findings revealed tourists’ interpretation of risk in ocean cruising is multi-dimensional and complex, and current conceptualisations of risk are inadequate to explain risk perceptions in cruising. The study highlights the significance of social and psychological risk on influencing holiday choice, the importance of self-congruity, and amplifies the relationship between trust, familiarity and risk in cruise decision-making. This study reconceptualises risk in cruising and provided rare insight into methodological challenges emerging from researcher positionality and use of reflexivity. Findings also suggest areas for further research on leisure constraints and self-congruity, and revealed practical marketing applications for cruise lines and the cruise industry to assist with brand switching and loyalty, and how to potentially attract non-cruisers.

Dr Clare Weeden

Dr Jo-Anne Lester

Dr Catherine Palmer

Jennifer currently teaches in the School of Sport and Service Management at the University of Brighton in the Competitive Marketing module. She also teaches in the Suffolk Business School at the University of Suffolk in Tourism Management. She serves as Secretary for the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group and is a Research Fellow with the Royal Geographical Society. Jennifer is currently working on research projects in relation to tourist and cruise industry response to the coronavirus crisis.

Research interests include cruise tourism, risk, tourism marketing, consumer behaviour and decision-making, arctic tourism, positionality, reflexivity and innovative qualitative data methods including image elicitation.

(Forthcoming, 2020) Conceptualising risk in cruise holidays: A critical review 

(Forthcoming, 2020) Navigating uncertainty: Tourists' perceptions of risk in ocean cruising

(Forthcoming, 2021) Self-congruity and cruise decision-making

Currently serving as Secretary for the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group and a Research Fellow with the Royal Geographical Society. Jennifer has also been lead organiser for research sessions at conferences including the Royal Geographical Society, Centre for Maritime Research, and co-convened a postgraduate conference for the British Sociological Association.

She has recently been interviewed about her research on the BBC, CNA (Singapore), Heart Radio, Seatrade Cruise News and written an article for The Conversation which has been shared around the world on Yahoo News and The Independent. Her research has featured in industry publications including The Maritime Executive, Skift, Ship Technology and the New Zealand Pilot's Association and in June at the Nautical Institute in London.