The gap between research and revenue decisions.
Revenue Impact Partners for cruise and hospitality leaders making defensible commercial decisions. Relevant research exists, published in peer-reviewed journals and growing every year. But it sits in academic databases, not on commercial dashboards. The people who produce the evidence and the people who make the decisions rarely occupy the same room. We exist to close that gap.
Why we exist
Decisions that are still assumption-driven.
Cruise lines routinely make high-stakes commercial decisions based on assumptions that are often untested against available evidence. Promotional strategies that may erode fare integrity. Loyalty programs that could be rewarding behavior that would happen anyway. Pricing architectures that may not reflect how guests actually perceive value.
Hawkes & Kwortnik uses published research plus operator data to pressure-test decisions that are often still assumption-driven. We do not produce reports that gather dust. We produce defensible recommendations tied to your specific data, your specific commercial questions, and your specific organizational context.
Principals only
You work directly with Ethan and Rob. No analysts. No associates. No handoffs. The people who do the thinking are the people in the room.
Fixed-fee sprints
Every engagement has a defined scope, a fixed price, and a clear deliverable. No open-ended retainers. No hourly billing. You know what you are paying and what you are getting.
Capability transfer
We do not build dependencies. Every engagement includes a transfer component: your team learns the framework, the assumptions, and the sensitivity points. You own the next iteration.
Evidence-based
Every recommendation is grounded in published research and validated against your data. We show our work. We explain the assumptions. We tell you what we are not sure about.
The partnership · The operator and the professor
Two records. One room.
This partnership is unusual by design. Most consulting firms separate their researchers from their practitioners. The people who do the analysis are not the people who have run the P&L. The people who have run the P&L do not have the methodological rigor to distinguish signal from noise in complex data.
Ethan Hawkes
Ethan brings two decades of operating experience at the intersection of hospitality, technology, and commercial strategy. He knows what it feels like to sit in the revenue call on Monday morning with 2,000 unsold cabins.1
- 2025
- Former VP, Onboard RevenueMSC Cruises, North America
- 2016–21
- CEO, PlacePassAcquired by Hopper; then led Partner Success revenue at Hopper
- 2007–15
- Associate Partner, McKinsey & CompanyTravel practice
- Cornell
- School of Hotel Administration · Johnson Graduate School of Management, MBA
Dr. Rob Kwortnik
Rob is one of the most published scholars in cruise and hospitality consumer behavior, with deep expertise in pricing, loyalty, and guest experience. He knows what the data actually says about which guests will fill those cabins at which prices under which conditions.2
- Since 2002
- Cornell Nolan School of Hotel AdministrationAssociate Professor of Services Marketing since 2009; has directed the Center for Hospitality Research
- Teaches
- Introduction to the Global Leisure Cruise IndustryA Cornell elective he developed
- Journals
- Journal of Marketing Research · Journal of Service Research · Journal of Travel ResearchAmong others; see the research, translated
- Advised
- CLIA, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise LineConsulting clients named on his Cornell profile
We work as a single team because the best commercial decisions require both perspectives simultaneously. Together, we produce recommendations that are both rigorous and actionable.
Selected research
The evidence base behind the advisory work.
Peer-reviewed research and tested frameworks authored or co-authored by our team. Each one translated into the decision it changes →
- Exploring Behavioral Differences Between New and Repeat Cruisers to a Cruise BrandSun, Kwortnik & Gauri · International Journal of Hospitality Management, 71, 132–140, 2018
- Categorizing Cruise Lines by Passenger Perceived ExperienceLi & Kwortnik · Journal of Travel Research, 56(7), 941–956, 2017
- Surprise, Anticipation, and Sequence Effects in the Design of Experiential ServicesDixon, Victorino, Kwortnik & Verma · Production and Operations Management, 26(5), 945–960, 2017
- Unifying Service Marketing and Operations with Service Experience ManagementKwortnik & Thompson · Journal of Service Research, 11(4), 389–406, 2009
- Improving Revenue Performance with Third-Degree Price Discrimination in the Cruise IndustryNamin, Gauri & Kwortnik · International Journal of Hospitality Management, 89, 102597, 2020
Our philosophy
We succeed when you don’t need us again.
Our job is to transfer the logic, not just the conclusions. We want your team to make the next decision without us. That is what capability transfer means.
We believe the best consulting engagements end with the client being more capable than when they started. Not more dependent on the consultant. More capable of making the next decision on their own.
That means we do not just deliver a deck with recommendations. We deliver working models, documented methodology, and a training session that equips your team to update the analysis, test new assumptions, and adapt the framework as conditions change.
We also believe in intellectual honesty. We will tell you what the evidence supports, what it does not support, and where uncertainty remains. We will not oversell our conclusions. We will not pretend that a 95% confidence interval means certainty. And we will not tell you what you want to hear if the data says something different.
Revenue impact, to us, means something specific. It means quantified, defensible improvements in commercial outcomes that your team can sustain after we leave. That is the standard we hold ourselves to. That is what “Revenue Impact Partners” means.
Book a review · 30 minutes · Both partners
Bring one live decision.
In 30 minutes with both partners, we will stress-test the question and tell you plainly whether deeper work is warranted, including “do not hire us” if that is the right answer.
The leader who owns the decision usually joins: the CEO, CCO, or head of Revenue, Finance or Loyalty. We reply within one business day. What happens next →
Request received.
We reply within one business day, usually with a short note on whether the question is a fit before we book the time.
Sources · Every numbered claim on this page
Cornell affiliation is for identification only- [1]Ethan Hawkes, curriculum vitae, April 2026. Principal-reported and not independently audited. Public profile: linkedin.com/in/ethan-hawkes.
- [2]Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, faculty profile: Robert Kwortnik, Jr., business.cornell.edu/profiles/rjk34. Read 24 September 2026. Hawkes & Kwortnik is not affiliated with, reviewed, or endorsed by Cornell University.
- [3]Robert J. Kwortnik, curriculum vitae, Cornell University, January 2026. About four of the 30 papers are teaching cases.
- [4]Cruise revenue influenced, cruise brands advised and years in the industry are principal-reported figures from the partners’ own records and are not independently audited.