Port governance and cruise tourism

Cruise activities, until 2020, have presented a significant increase in revenue, as well as number of cruises and passengers transported, and it has become a challenge for ports to respond to this demand for services. In response to this, the world’s ports have implemented different governance models. In this context, in this paper, we aim to review the different governance models, as well as port cooperation, competition, and stakeholders. For this purpose, using science metric meta-analysis, an article set is extracted that strictly refers to the governance model of two databases integrated into the Core Collection Web of Science, whose selection process is polished with the PRISMA guidelines, establishing the eligibility criteria of studies using PICOS tool, to which a qualitative meta-analysis is applied. A limited studies set is identified, that includes governance model implementations, private strategies and internalization patterns in the port sector and cruise ships, patterns of port cooperation and governance, governance models in cruise ports, structures and strategies, and changes in the cruise market. Finally, various governance model forms are determined, all documented in the scientific research worldwide, discussing the various components of study topics.