María Eugenia López-Lambas

High speed rail effects on tourism: Spanish empirical evidence derived from China's modelling experience

Abstract China and Spain are currently among the top tourist destinations, coming third and fourth place in the 2014 world ranking of tourist arrivals, behind France and the US. Tourism is crucial for the economies of Spain and China, and both countries have the longest high speed rail (HSR) networks in the world. What role has HSR infrastructure played in the development of tourism in both countries? Little research has been done to date, even in Europe, to estimate empirically how tourism indicators are affected by new HSR lines. In 2012 a multivariate panel analysis by Chen and Haynes was applied to 27 Chinese regions, and confirmed that emerging high speed rail services (during the period 1999–2010) had significant positive impacts on boosting tourism in China. No similar empirical tool has ever been tested in Europe. The aim of this paper is to analyse and validate this tool when applied to the Spanish context, and to develop a comparative analysis with the Chinese case study. The methodology is applied to 47 Spanish provinces during the period 1999–2015, and the results clearly reveal a positive but lower-value link (compared to China) between the increase in certain tourism outputs (foreign arrivals and revenues) and HSR network construction. However, further research is needed into the models limitations, namely the availability of suitable tourism indicators in the official databases, the HSR explanatory variables considered, and the ability to detect “circular cause-effects” between HSR and tourism.

The Socioeconomic Impact of the Intelligent Vehicles: Implementation Strategies

Abstract New technologies are overturning the traditional transport market, affecting our lifestyle, jobs, and communications; nevertheless, many questions remain unsolved, mainly those affecting liability, insurance, security, etc. Connected and automated vehicles mean a change of paradigm in mobility, but also in economy and habits, and even social issues, such as the acceptance of the innovations or the effects on employment and liveability. Authorities and the rest of the stakeholders must face those challenges in a proactive way to establish a common thorough and reliable framework of rules and guidelines, and to avoid eventual rebound and undesirable effects.New technologies are overturning the traditional transport market, affecting our lifestyle, jobs, and communications; nevertheless, many questions remain unsolved, mainly those affecting liability, insurance, security, etc. Connected and automated vehicles mean a change of paradigm in mobility, but also in economy and habits, and even social issues, such as the acceptance of the innovations or the effects on employment and liveability. Authorities and the rest of the stakeholders must face those challenges in a proactive way to establish a common thorough and reliable framework of rules and guidelines, and to avoid eventual rebound and undesirable effects.

The Assessment of the HSR Impacts on Spanish Tourism: An Approach Based on Multivariate Panel Data Analysis

Abstract Literature review shows that little research has done so far to estimate how tourism indicators are affected by new High Speed Rail (HSR) lines. In 2012, a multivariate panel analysis developed by Chen and Haynes was applied to the Chinese regions to quantify the HSR impact on tourism output. The Chinese experience confirmed that, during the period 1999-2010, emerging high speed rail services did have significant positive impacts on boosting tourism in China. Since them, no similar empirical tool has ever been tested in Europe. The aim of this paper is to analyze and validate the suitability of this tool to assess empirically the effects of HSR on Spanish tourism during the period 1999-2014, and to enhance the abovementioned model with a tourism database. With more than 20 years’ HSR experience, and operating the longest HSR network in Europe (2,900 km), Spain offers a good scenario for this model application because Spanish tourism sector represents 10.2% of its gross domestic product (GDP). Results clearly show that there is a direct linkage between the evolution of certain Spanish tourism outputs and the construction of the HSR network. However, authorś recommendations include future new research on some variables limitations like the type of tourism output considered or the consideration of alternative explanatory indicators.

3iBS: no solo de tecnología se alimenta la eficiencia

A pesar de los grandes avances en materia de calidad experimentados por los sistemas de autobus en los ultimos anos, sigue arraigada la creencia de que se trata de un medio de transporte de escasa fiabilidad y peor imagen. Sin embargo, la continua innovacion que se viene aplicando tanto a los vehiculos como a las infraestructuras y a la propia operacion, ha mejorado notablemente la eficiencia de los distintos sistemas, incidiendo tanto en el nivel como en la calidad de servicio.El proyecto europeo 3iBS ha permitido que, a traves de una serie de indicadores, aplicados a los tres aspectos mencionados, se analicen distintos casos de estudio en Espana, Francia, Italia y Reino Unido, al objeto de averiguar cuales son los principales factores que dificultan o favorecen la calidad y el nivel de servicio. Dichos factores afectan a cuestiones regulatorias, tecnicas, financieras y otras mas difusas como la imagen o la mercadotecnia. La elaboracion de unas fichas previas, con datos generales y exhaustivos de cada sistema examinado, ha permitido establecer los criterios utilizados para medir los diferentes niveles de servicio y calidad de cada sistema considerado.Finalmente, y tras el analisis de cinco casos de estudio, se han extraido algunas recomendaciones y buenas practicas para mejorar la eficiencia y la competitividad de los autobuses, aumentando y perfeccionando su papel dentro de la movilidad urbana. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.3230

Coordination des politiques de transport et de développement urbain : le projet prospects du 5ème programme cadre de l'U.E.

The objective of the PROSPECTS project (5th Framework Programme of the EU), is to provide cities with guidance to generate optimal land use and transport strategies to meet the challenge of sustainability in their particular circumstances. The methodology has consisted of a width survey of 54 European cities, in order to identify the main constraints to the urban planning process, and those responsible agents to overcome those constraints and barriers. With the results of the survey several algorithms were formulated, which came in useful for the elaboration of an Strategic Planning Model (SPM). The SPM permits to analyse the long term effects of many planning measures, optimizing their combination. Finally, the SPM was applied to 6 European cities to be validated. Classification JEL : R4, R400, R 140, R520.