Congratulations to Wendy London on receiving her PhD.  Wendy’s topic was “Cruise infrastructure development:  a social network approach”.

A passion for cruising, politics, infrastructure projects and New Zealand evolved into a dream PhD thesis topic for Wendy London. The steady and substantial growth of cruising worldwide means that potential, new and mature cruise destinations are faced with developing or redeveloping their cruise infrastructure. (Re)development can be the result of growth in the number of passengers and ships and the size of ships. New Zealand is no exception. The country’s continuing growth as a popular cruise destination means that its ports need to consider (re)development to support this growth.

Critical to New Zealand’s continuing and growing success is Auckland, New Zealand’s principal turnaround (home) port. However, the past 10 years have witnessed a series of proposals for Auckland’s cruise infrastructure (re)development which have been characterised by heated political debate. Wendy’s thesis unpacked this ongoing debate, examining how power and politics affect the interrelationships and decision-making of and access to information by stakeholders in Auckland’s cruise infrastructure development network.

Post PhD, Wendy is writing a book, Cruise Tourism Development, for ChannelView (UK), pursuing her cruise-related business interests and doing cruise ship enrichment and destination lectures. Wendy is an avid cruiser, having cruised to all seven continents, on all seven seas, and even almost to the North Pole.