Environmental sustainability: a strategic value in guiding cruise industry management

Purpose - In a systemic approach, a ship is a system in which people and organizations interact directly and indirectly in all processes from construction, during the route and at the destination, throughout its useful life, until eventual scrapping or disposal process. The purpose of this paper is to take on the UN 2030 Agenda. Goal 14 to propose a management model that meets environmental guidelines for assessing impacts caused by the cruise ships. Design/methodology/approach - To verify the proposed model, a quantitative survey using non-probability purposive sampling was conducted among ports, environmental sustainability experts and ocean cruise companies. The empirical data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. Findings - Findings have confirmed five environmental requirements that shipping companies must manage on their cruise ships to meet Goal 14: input management, waste management, air quality, energy management and water management. Adopting and disseminating sustainable development models provides transparent information about actions taken and results of environmental management, and it may change the perception of the organization's image, which is relevant to win and maintain environment-friendly customers, adding intangible value to the tourism product. Research limitations/implications - One of the limitations of the study is the research sample, especially ocean cruise companies, which can have biased results, as they are potential sources of environmental impacts. However, this was not the case, since the answers were similar to those of the other two groups surveyed. Originality/value - The originality of the study is justified by researchers who argue that information provided by shipping companies on sustainability is very limited, as according to previous research, the convergence between strategy formulation model and environmental sustainability as a principle to be incorporated into the management of oceangoing vessels has not been studied.