Anna Maria Parroco

An examination of tourist arrivals dynamics using short-term time series data: a space-time cluster approach

The purpose of this study is to examine the development of Italian tourist areas (circoscrizioni turistiche) through a cluster analysis of short time series. The technique is an adaptation of the functional data analysis approach developed by Abraham et al (2003), which combines spline interpolation with k-means clustering. The findings indicate the presence of two patterns (increasing and stable) averagely characterizing groups of territories. Moreover, tests of spatial contiguity suggest the presence of ‘space–time clusters’; that is, areas in the same ‘time cluster’ are also spatially contiguous. These findings appear to be more robust in particular for those series characterized by an increasing trend.

Environmental Dysfunctions, Childhood Maltreatment and Women’s Intimate Partner Violence Victimization

Childhood maltreatment is considered a crucial explanatory variable for intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood. However, a developmental multifactorial model for the etiology of IPV is not shared by researchers yet. This study has investigated the role of a wide range of childhood maltreatments and family and social dysfunctions in predicting IPV; furthermore, it tests a model where childhood maltreatment mediates the relationship between environmental dysfunctions and IPV. The sample included 78 women: IPV (38) and non-IPV (40). The Italian version of the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) Interview was used to assess the presence of adverse childhood experiences. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-2) and the IPV History Interview were used to assess IPV in the last year and lifetime, respectively. The results of a multivariate logistic regression model have indicated that only sexual (odds ratio [OR] = 4.24) and psychological (OR = 3.45) abuse significantly predicted IPV; with regard to association between IPV and environmental dysfunctions, only poor social support (OR = 8.91) significantly predicted IPV. The results of a mediation model have shown that childhood psychological and sexual abuse, in association with each other, partially mediate the relationship between poor social support and IPV. The findings from this study pinpoint poor social support as an important predictor of IPV so far neglected in the literature on the developmental antecedents of IPV. They also support the theoretical assumption according to which dysfunctional environmental variables and types of childhood maltreatment interacting with each other may influence development outcomes.

Multi-destination trips: A survey on incoming zourism in Sicily

Many pleasure trips are often characterized by the visit of more than a single destination. Despite the topic is well documented in literature, the empirical studies are limited to a few pioneering studies. This lack may be attributable to the failure of tourism organizations to collect data on multi-destination trip behaviors, as it results, for example, from the system of European statistics on tourism (according to the Council Directive 95/57 EC), where no information on the average number of destinations visited within a single trip are provided. This paper aims to analyze the main implications of multi-destination trips both on tourism statistics and in tourism planning, and to describe the research design and the solutions adopted for the analysis of incoming tourism in Sicily. Some results related to the number of destinations visited and on the main travel itineraries undertaken by tourists in Sicily derived from the survey are presented.

Short Term Dynamics of Tourist Arrivals: What Do Italian Destinations Have in Common?

This work aims to detect the common short term dynamics to yearly time series of 413 Italian tourist areas. We adopt the clustering technique of Abraham et al. (Scand J Stat. 30:581–595, 2003) who propose a two-stage method which fits the data by B-splines and partitions the estimated model coefficients using a k-means algorithm. The description of each cluster, which identifies a specific kind of dynamics, is made through simple descriptive cross tabulations in order to study how the location of the areas across the regions or their prevailing typology of tourism characterize each group.