João Romão

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.

Tourist Loyalty and Urban E-Services: A Comparison of Behavioral Impacts in Leipzig and Amsterdam

Abstract E-services are increasingly important communication tools for tourism providers but not all tourists prefer the same type of services. This work compares the preferences for e-services according to the characteristics of tourists and the implications on their expenditures during travel to the cities of Amsterdam and Leipzig. In addition, the determinants of satisfaction and loyalty according to the characteristics and motivations of the visitors in these cities are analyzed. Despite some important common tendencies, most of the relations under analysis in both structural models did not provide identical results for these two cities, emphasizing the heterogeneity of tourism destinations.

Describing the Relationships between Tourist Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty in a Segmented and Digitalized Market

As a result of advances in ICT services, transportation and local development, among others, more destinations are competing to attract both national and international visitors. Globalization requires destinations to increase their competitiveness or risk losing out on tourist revenues. While the research into destination competitiveness and tourist loyalty is well founded, recent progress in e-services has opened up new opportunities for informing and attracting visitors. This paper examines the potential effects of e-services in an inclusive model of destination loyalty to the city of Leipzig in Germany. The results of the path analysis indicate possibilities for e-services to increase both satisfaction and loyalty, especially with regard to various tourist subgroups.

Impacts of innovation, productivity and specialization on tourism competitiveness – a spatial econometric analysis on European regions

Tourism is clearly a place-based activity, while in many advanced economies it is increasingly becoming a knowledge-based activity, with a high potential for the development of practice- and place-based innovation strategies. This study analyses whether and how regional systems of innovation influence the competiveness of tourism destinations in Europe. Impacts of both traditional production factors (physical and human capital), productivity, specialization and other contextual variables – related to the territorial capital of each region – on regional tourism performance of 237 European regions (NUTS 2) are analysed over a period of 8 years, using advanced techniques for spatial econometric analysis. The results reveal lower levels of productivity in those regions where tourism services are more labour intensive, while regions where education, innovation and productivity demonstrate higher levels are those where gross value added in tourism is less important for the regional economy. Policy implications are discussed, taking into consideration the principles for smart specialisation strategies in European regions and the possibility for cross-border regional cooperation. This work also confirms the research potential of spatial econometric analysis – and in particular spatial autocorrelation techniques – for tourism studies.

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.

Market segmentation and their potential economic impacts in an ecotourism destination An applied modelling study on Hokkaido, Japan

In a heterogeneous tourist market, segmentation is a valuable marketing tool to focus attention on the most advantageous clusters of visitors. In an ecotourism destination, the attractiveness of tourists may be defined by their ecological awareness, but also their (potential) economic impact, since there is a need to balance ecological sustainability and economic viability. This article proposes a model-based latent class analysis of visitors’ preferences and choices in order to identify different demand clusters in the Shiretoko Peninsula, Japan. The method yields four distinct clusters, each differing in motivations, information search and activities undertaken. We also describe how our approach can be used to make informed decisions about management strategies on tourist heterogeneity in order to maximize benefits for the local economy.

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.

Tourism Economic Impacts

Tourism is following a path of sustained growth at the global level, with important socio-economic impacts all over the world, justifying a critical discussion on the existing methods (and limitations) for their estimation (tourism satellite accounts, input-output methods, or computable general equilibrium and social account models), along with an overview and analysis of different techniques to assess the economic value of nonmarketable tourism-related assets, like nature or cultural heritage (hedonic prices or contingent valuation) or immaterial valuable aspects (like the loyalty of visitors). The communal character of many tourism resources, with the consequent appropriation and provision problems characterizing the common pool resources, is also discussed. A more specific discussion on the contribution of tourism for economic growth (tourism-led growth hypothesis) and its limitations in the long run is framed within the consideration of the historical dimension of tourism development, through the analysis of the evolutionary aspects of the life cycle of tourism destinations, including potential negative long-term consequences of specialization in tourism. In this context, the analytic contributions related to the evolutionary economic geography, emphasizing the roles of place and time, emerge as useful tools for the study of the economic dynamics of tourism in contemporary societies, mostly when discussing the role of tourism within the context of a regional economy and its relations with other sectors, activities, and innovation dynamics.

Spatial-Economic Impacts of Tourism on Regional Development: Contemporary Challenges

This concluding chapter proposes a conceptual framework for the analysis of some relevant problems observed in contemporary tourism dynamics, by combining the theoretical formulations discussed along this book with the results obtained in a series of studies comprising a large number of European regions. As this sample includes regions with very different characteristics (high and low levels of economic development, different patterns of specialization and tourism dynamics, diverse cultural and natural endowments, or different innovation and technological capabilities), the conclusions and recommendations can be generalized to a broader geographical perspective. This conceptual framework is centered on the concepts of authenticity, significance, the environmental paradox, smart tourism, co-creation of destinations and experiences, the role of information for the segmentation of markets and differentiation of supply, the life cycle of tourism destinations, path dependence processes, and the importance of history, variety, specialization, or integrative diversification of tourism products. As a result, a set of challenges for the future of tourism – to be addressed at the policy and managerial levels – is discussed. These challenges relate to the provision of memorable trips oriented to personalized and significant experiences based on a sustainable use of territorial resources, the promotion of diverse and balanced regional economies by reinforcing the interrelations between the tourism sector and the overall creative economy, and the implementation of effective processes of participatory governance for the definition of sustainable development strategies.