João Guerreiro

Regional tourism development: culture, nature, life cycle and attractiveness

In this article, a simplified version of the tourism area life cycle model is developed in order to identify different stages of tourism evolution among the regions of Southwest Europe (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal). This information has been included as a dummy variable in a panel data model which aims to explain regional tourism attractiveness, between 2003 and 2008, including other variables related to sustainability (regional natural and cultural resources), regional innovative efforts and other elements related to tourism infrastructures and economic conditions that influence regional tourism performance. The results obtained show that 50% of the inland regions and 56% of the west coast regions are in the exploration stage while 52% of the south coast regions are in stagnation. An important result from the application of the panel data model is the identification of a positive relation between the regional availability of natural and cultural assets, the regional efforts on innovation and the evolution of tourism demand, suggesting that these regions are generally incorporating these local specific resources in innovative ways to differentiate their tourism supply.

Tourism growth and regional resilience: The ‘beach disease’ and the consequences of the global crisis of 2007

As a consequence of the international financial crisis in 2007, the region of Algarve, where tourism plays an important economic and social role, suffered a decrease in tourism demand, while unemployment increased sharply. Although tourism activities registered a quick recovery, unemployment levels continued to grow. This article examines the impacts of tourism activities on the sectorial structure of the regional economy, using a Bayesian vector autoregressive model. The results reveal that tourism growth did not automatically create the expected positive impacts on the economic performance of the other sectors, as was expressed by the objectives defined in the regional development strategies over the last two decades. The positive impacts of tourism were concentrated in the production of non-tradable goods and the construction sector, leading to a significant reduction of the weight of the tradable sector within the regional economy, similar to a process of deindustrialization described as the ‘Dutch disease’. The decline of construction activities after 2007 has led to a significant increase of regional unemployment, although tourism growth has returned to ‘pre-crisis’ levels, revealing the lack of regional resilience.

Territorial Differentiation, Competitiveness and Sustainability of Tourism

In the long run, competitiveness of tourism destinations is linked to their sustainability. In order to preserve the characteristics that guarantee attractiveness, local natural and cultural aspects must be included in the tourism supply, creating a differentiated product. This work systematizes the main theoretical contributions on competitiveness and sustainability of tourism and analyses how the regions of South-western Europe are incorporating their natural and cultural resources in order to reinforce their attractiveness. This analysis uses a panel-data model to estimate a regional demand function that incorporates new and traditional factors of tourism competitiveness. The most important result arising from this study is that the factors of competitiveness related to the sustainability of tourism destinations taken into consideration (local natural and cultural resources) have a positive impact on regions’ competitiveness.

Regional Tourism Development

Local natural and cultural resources should be the basic elements to differentiate destinations through innovative products and services, in order to ensure both their competitiveness and sustainability in the long run. This chapter covers a critical literature review on the topics of innovation, differentiation, competitiveness, and sustainability in tourism. A panel data model is developed in order to define regional demand functions for regions in Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy, estimating the influence of natural and cultural heritage, innovation, and other “traditional” factors of competitiveness on the attractiveness of tourism destinations.

Sustainable Energy Communities: Implementation Study of a Wind Community in Algarve (Portugal)

The objective of this paper is to study the implementation of a wind energy unit to supply the electricity for the consumption of a small local community in the Algarve region and evaluate its financial and economic feasibility. Additionally, the study can contribute to increase the use of renewable energy in electricity production by decentralized systems in Portugal. Thus it will stimulate the creation of local systems of electricity production for own consumption in small urban communities, meeting the concept of Renewable Energy Communities, specifically the Wind Communities.