Design-driven innovation: A new luxury maritime leisure sector between cruising and superyacht charter

The cruise industry has become one of the fastest growing tourism sectors. Growth in popularity has changed the luxury design meaning of cruising from its elitist beginnings into something more accessible and less exclusive. This paper reports on a design proposal that challenges perceptions of exclusivity in the American cruise market by using Design-Driven Innovation to create a 'technological epiphany', a new market between luxury cruising and superyacht charter. The design proposal consists of a main entertainment vessel (cruise liner) acting as a mothership, which transports SWATH floating apartments to various destination around the Caribbean. Where they are launched and later recovered, operating on the same principle as Dockwise yacht transporters. The SWATH floating apartments offer clients the freedom, luxury and privacy normally associated with superyachts. When docked with the mothership the floating apartments are fully integrated into the interior design of the mothership. The interior design proposals for both the mothership and floating apartments have been informed by the cultural specificity of luxury in the American market