Research On Subsidy Policy Of China’s Cruise Ship Supply Chain In The Post-Epidemic Era

Since the outbreak of COVID-19,the Chinese cruise industry has suffered an unprecedented blow.The subsequent control measures on port entry have further plunged the transitioning Chinese cruise market into a state of stagnation.In the second half of 2020,with the adjustment of national epidemic prevention policies and the continuous improvement of cruise health and epidemic prevention systems,local cruise ships such as the "Southern Dream" and "Zhao Shang Yidun" have gradually resumed operations.At the same time,with the strong recovery of the outbound tourism market,it is only a matter of time before international cruise lines return to the Chinese market.Given the importance of policy incentives for the development of the emerging market cruise industry,the government urgently needs to reformulate post-pandemic subsidy policies for the cruise industry to restore consumer confidence and revive the Chinese cruise market.Based on the above background,this paper combines game theory and nonlinear programming theory to construct a subsidy allocation model that considers government budget constraints to study the decision optimization of supply chain members and the subsidy mechanism design of local governments.Firstly,this paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chinese cruise market and innovatively divides the Chinese cruise market under the influence of the pandemic into two periods: the period of admission restrictions and the post-pandemic period.Secondly,this paper explores the optimal subsidy policy of the government in different periods,as well as its impact on the operational decisions,profit performance,and local market penetration of supply chain members.Finally,this paper puts forward suggestions for improving the government’s subsidy policy under the normalization of the pandemic and optimizing the operational decisions of supply chain members for reference,to help the Chinese cruise industry gain greater development space relying on subsidy policies in the post-pandemic era.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)In both periods,as long as the subsidy achieves the optimal level,either the cruise lines,the travel agency,or the passengers as recipients of the subsidy policy can maximize the market demand and recover the cruise market after the COVID-19 outbreak.For supply chain members,the choice of subsidy target will change their pricing decisions,but the profit performance of supply chain members will not change under the combined effect of subsidy effect and pricing effect.(2)In view of the competition between local cruise lines and international cruise lines,local governments should reallocate financial funds in the post-epidemic period and implement differentiated subsidy standards.As the local cruise lines are in their infancy and their brand influence is more disparate than that of international cruise lines,government subsidy funds should be more inclined to the local cruise lines.(3)For the international cruise lines,the subsidy policy does not always positively impact the international cruise lines’ profit,and the differentiated subsidy levels may weaken their brand advantages,so how to improve the innovation of cruise products and promote "cruise culture" has become an urgent problem for the international cruise lines in the Chinese market.(4)Local cruise lines and international cruise lines are more inclined to entrust different travel agencies to sell tickets in the post-epidemic period.Under this structure,cruise lines not only hold more channel power,but also have higher market demand.