The cruise events organizational and managerial process: the role of Accounting Information Systems and Management Control

The paper aims to investigate the role played by the Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and management control in the cruise events management process. The authors analyse the events planned on the cruise ships stopped at the quay (cruise events on ship berthing) and the events organized on the terminal infrastructures (cruise events on terminal). In the last years, the events planned on the terminals are significantly increasing, but their management is still designed separately from the passenger flows. These events might be a strategic tool to support the promotional activities of the cruising and the AIS and management control could play a key role in the cooperation between terminal concessionaires and cruise companies in the cruise events management process. This is an exploratory study conducted through a qualitative approach analysing two terminal concessionaires in the Italian context. It provides a set of key performance indicators to support the management, to control and coordinate the cruise event processes described and to gather data on the efficiency and effectiveness of the "new events" promoted by the concessionaires.