Vol 16 No 2 June 2010
SPECIAL ISSUE: NEW ADVANCES IN TOURISM ECONOMICS
Editors: Carlos Pestana Barros and Álvaro Matias
270 Introduction
273 Productivity growth and sources of technological change in travel agencies
303 Persistence change in tourism data
321 Coping with externalities in tourism: a dynamic optimal taxation approach
345 Hotel quality appraisal on the Internet: a market for lemons?
361 A microsimulation model for e-services in cultural heritage tourism
405 Assessing tourism supply quality using formative indicators: implications for destination management
427 Tourism development in Madeira: an analysis based on the life cycle approach
443 Does destination image influence the length of stay in a tourism destination?
Title: Productivity growth and sources of technological change in travel agencies
Abstract: This paper proposes a procedure for analysing tourism productivity. The procedure is based on the Luenberger productivity indicator for estimating and decomposing productivity change into efficiency change and technological change. The authors expand the procedure and further decompose the process of technological change to study the sources of bias within it. Therefore, a clearer and more enlightening view emerges of the productivity of travel agencies. The Portuguese travel agency sector is used as an application. Some managerial implications are developed.
Abstract: This study models international monthly arrivals in the Canary Islands using different time- series approaches that enable an examination of the degree of persistence of the series. The author focuses on long memory processes at the long-run or zero frequency, at the seasonal frequencies and at both simultaneously. A forecasting experiment is also conducted and the results indicate that the model with two differencing parameters seems to be the most adequate specification for this series, being non- stationary with respect to the two components and mean reverting with respect to the seasonal structure.
Title: Persistence change in tourism data
Title: Coping with externalities in tourism: a dynamic optimal taxation approach
Abstract: The paper studies optimal taxation (subvention) when tourism is associated with ‘multiple externalities’, using a simple dynamic model of a small open economy specializing completely in the production of tourism services and populated by a large number of intertemporally optimizing agents. Depending on the volume of tourism production, the externality can be either positive or negative. The study shows that the first best optimum, achieved by a central planner recognizing the externality, can be replicated in a decentralized economy by using a time-varying tax rate. This ensures (i) that the steady state of the first best optimum is reached and (ii) that the speed of convergence to steady state is socially optimal.
Title: Hotel quality appraisal on the Internet: a market for lemons?
Abstract: Potential guests have difficulties in obtaining reliable ex ante assessments of hotels because of the adverse selection problem. Consumers now have a new source of information about hotel quality: information providers on the Internet. The key issue is the degree of reliability of this information. Two types of Internet information providers can be distinguished: those that also sell the assessed services (‘sale Websites’) and those that do not sell services (‘advice Websites’). The former obtain their income via fees, while the latter obtain theirs via advertising (number of hits). It is argued that the information on advice Websites is more reliable than that on sale Websites because the latter suffer from a misalignment of incentives arising from the inverse relationship between income/reward and the quality of the report. Our results show that sale Websites (fee financed) provide an assessment of the quality of their hotels which is on average 7% higher than the equivalent assessment of advice Websites (advertising financed). This difference increases significantly with the hotel category, with up to a 9% increase for five-star hotels. It is also shown that there are systematic differences in the quality appraisal between these two types of information providers. The main implications for tourists and hotel managers are outlined.
Title: A microsimulation model for e-services in cultural heritage tourism
Abstract: Tourism is on a rising curve from both policy and research perspectives. This paper presents new research advances on individual tourist behaviour and motives, with particular reference to the role of e-services in cultural heritage tourism. An innovative tool adopted here is (spatial) microsimulation modelling (MSM). This method is used to offer a micro-based picture of the motives and behaviour of the total tourist and resident population concerned, including their preferences and personal characteristics. MSM is a novel but hitherto little used scientific tool in the behavioural analysis of cultural heritage tourism, mainly because of the lack of detailed and consistent (spatial) information on tourist flows and their characteristics at an urban scale. MSM is a powerful tool: one of its advantages is its ability to link existing databases and information, so as to provide new behavioural insights at the meso-level of research. To trace the motives, preferences and spatial behaviour of tourists empirically, advanced micro-based research techniques are needed. In this empirical application to tourist flows in the city of Amsterdam, the authors use factor analysis and ordered logit models as the foundation stones for the design of MSM. The empirical model is then applied to the use of e-services by tourists in Amsterdam who wish to enjoy the cultural heritage of the city.
Abstract: The success of tourism development depends on the capacity of a region’s tourism agents to establish and sustain networks, involving both private-sector companies and the public sector. Creating an attractive destination able to compete with others that are better positioned and consolidated requires cooperative behaviour among the various agents involved. This behaviour will facilitate both external and internal competition, which in turn will assure better product quality, continuous product renewal, a strong offer of unique experiences and the efficient use of endogenous resources. In this paper, the authors discuss the results of a survey of restaurant owners and of interviews conducted with the main institutional agents concerned with tourism promotion and the economic development of the Minho–Lima region. Such an approach, the authors argue, can be valuable in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the area in question with regard to future tourism development. The authors work from the premise that the commitment of tourism agents constitutes a precondition for the success of the strategy to be defined. This is especially applicable to Minho–Lima, which to date has suffered from an absence of commitment and coordination on the part of those agents.
Title: Assessing tourism supply quality using formative indicators: implications for destination management
Abstract: Perceived tourism supply quality influences a visitor’s satisfaction with a particular destination as well as his or her post-visit behaviour. It is therefore an important source of a destination’s competitive advantage. To identify those destination attributes that are the most influential in forming visitors’ quality perceptions, the authors conceptualize tourism supply quality as a formative (as opposed to a reflective) construct. The conceptual model is validated empirically on three destination samples using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that relevant destination attributes are destination-specific, while the hypothesized relationships between destination attributes, overall destination quality, visitor satisfaction and behavioural intentions are largely supported. In addition, formative measurement models are found to have larger explanatory power than reflective measurement models.
Title: Tourism development in Madeira: an analysis based on the life cycle approach
Abstract: This paper identifies Madeira Island’s growth stage in accordance with Butler’s life cycle model. Life cycle analysis is pursued using an econometric approach over an extended period, from 1976 to 2006. The results suggest that Madeira is about to enter the stagnation phase. The industry’s development since the 1970s was found to conform to Butler’s model, but in its own way. In the case of Madeira, the island’s positive image and the time span within each of the life cycle stages challenge the traditional life cycle model, suggesting rather that the maturity stage may persist indefinitely.
Title: Does destination image influence the length of stay in a tourism destination?
Abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between the image of a destination and demand duration, focusing specifically on Madeira. A seemingly unrelated discrete-choice duration model is adopted, with data from a questionnaire survey undertaken in 2008 on a sample of homeward-bound foreign individuals departing from Madeira’s Funchal Airport. The paper discusses the policy implications of the research findings.
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