Tourism and Regional Science

This contribution posits that the tourism sector—as part of the leisure society—deserves a more prominent position in regional science. After a general outline of trends in modern tourism, this chapter argues that promising research angles can be found in: (a) the closer examination of the complex components of leisure time, (b) the income drivers and prosperity impacts of tourism, and (c) the place-based characteristics of tourism destinations (including environmental and neighbourhood externalities). The new role of regional science research in tourism is also to be found in the wider context of the hospitality sector and in a context-specific research framing.

Assessing travel and tourism competitiveness (T&TC) is becoming an issue of paramount importance for stakeholders, mainly policymakers and practitioners. The availability of new databases such as the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) has boosted this interest. This chapter contributes to the current literature in this field with an assessment of the T&TC of 136 world tourist destinations. In doing so, two well-known approaches are employed: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with endogenous common weights, and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS). World tourist destinations are ranked using these approaches, and both of the resulting rankings are then compared to the ranking provided by the WEF. Lastly, further analysis is carried out aimed at determining the main pillars and sub-pillars of T&TC, as a way to provide relevant insights to policymakers and practitioners. Our conclusion is that the two proposed methods are valid candidates for measuring the T&TC of world tourism destinations.

This study provides an analytical framework of smart tourism specialization, integrating smart tourism, tourism specialization, and nations’ competitive advantage. The resulting model incorporates a process of tourism specialization, distinguishing between envisioned and realized tourism specialization. The model’s dynamic nature originates from the applied smart tourism management approach and a feedback loop while considering the possibility that tourism development is not an isolated process. The study contributes to the literature by analytically linking smart tourism with tourism specialization and nations’ competitiveness in a smart tourism specialization framework. Also, the study propels two new concepts in smart tourism literature, i.e., smart tourism specialization and smart tourism management. The analysis framework serves as a blueprint for policymakers in their quest to outfox the competition.

This chapter aims to provide an empirical contribution to trace key geographical factors for inbound and domestic tourism in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. In this study we use a set of relevant input and output data in 2015 for a set of 54 cities, towns and villages in Hokkaido Prefecture, so as to evaluate and compare their territorial tourism efficiency by means of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We introduce a double-track efficiency approach, based on domestic tourism efficiency and inbound tourism efficiency. We find, on the one hand, that inbound efficiency scores and time distance from the tourism hub city (Sapporo) do not show a statistically significant outcome, while, on the contrary, domestic efficiency scores and time distance from the tourism hub city show statistically significant results. On the other hand, inbound efficiency scores and time distance from the nearest airport are statistically significant, whereas domestic efficiency scores and time distance from the nearest airport are not statistically significant. From the results, it is inferred that an improvement of both access to regional airports and of the frequency of international flights to regional airports may have a positive effect on inbound tourism and rural development in Hokkaido.

This chapter is about democratization and citizen participation in the management of cultural heritage. Although heritage is often perceived as a domain of experts, it is key to the daily lives of citizens. Increasingly, as in nearly all sectors of society, citizens demand a voice in the definition and management of heritage, and in the development of planning alternatives and design solutions, amongst others with regard to tourism, leisure and recreation. Here, heritage planning meets a UN sustainable development goal, that of inclusive and equal social justice. Government agencies, heritage professionals and spatial planners are already beginning to open up to the public, aiming to increase inclusiveness, and heritage tourism and recreation is accessible to larger sections of society than ever. However, there is much debate, but little research, on current concepts, tools and procedures for democratization in the access to and definition, appropriation, management and planning of heritage. It is the explicit aim of the EU-funded Project Heriland to explore such concepts, tools and procedures in a series of laboratory contexts throughout Europe, both urban and rural. The Heriland Project is an International Training Network (ITN), funded through the EU Horizon2020 Marie Curie Action (GA 813883; 2019–2023). It is a collaboration of VU University Amsterdam, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Goteborgs Universitet, Universita’ degli Studi Roma Tre, Technische Universiteit Delft, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and 16 associated partners from all over Europe. In this chap. I present one of these labs, that of the so-called Ecomuseo della Via Appia, in a rural context in the southern Italian Apulia region.

Up to 1929, Milan was labelled “Little Venice”, due to its dense network of canals. In that year, the network was partially covered and replaced by roads aiming at faster freight and passenger transport. During an informal referendum held in 2011, most of Milan’s citizens (95%) declared to be in favour of restoring the Navigli waterways system, now flowing underground in the centre of the city. Following this result, in 2015 the Polytechnic of Milan developed the feasibility study of the project. The waterways system could be reactivated for about 8 km, passing through the Eastern area of the city centre and connecting the North of the city to the South. In addition to the blueprint restoration, according to the sustainable mobility strategy adopted by the Municipality, a cycle-path will be running aside the canal, thus relieving congestion in high traffic and over-crowded roads. The Navigli restoration project would thus dramatically change not only the aesthetic character of the whole city of Milan but also the accessibility level—especially in the city centre—thanks to the new slow mobility infrastructure. Furthermore, this urban transformation would represent a big opportunity for the preservation and promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of the city, by partially restoring the ancient landscape. Ultimately, the city image would certainly benefit from the expected improvement of the overall quality of life generated by the project, especially concerning the “leisure” aspects. In order to explore the increased urban attractiveness, the value attached by tourists to the project has been investigated in the chapter. Both the cultural and environmental features of this urban transformation, together with the “non-users” benefits stemming from the slow mobility improvement, suggested to adopt a Total Economic Value (TEV) approach and a Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). To this aim, a survey was carried out in 2019 among 1070 tourists and excursionists in order to elicit their preferences for the restored waterways system. The results have shown that visitors would be eager to spend a sensible amount of time to enjoy the waterfront and that they would mainly go there on foot or by bike, thus proving that the project would increase active mobility options and the consequent enhancement of transport sustainability in the city.

The rise of peer-to-peer booking networks for accommodations such as Airbnb has significantly altered the tourism landscape and has had broad implications for destination management. Apart from providing direct competition to the traditional hospitality sector, concerns have been raised about urban gentrification effects—through an influence on housing prices—and neighbourhood touristification. Subsequently, many European cities have started to design policies in order to control or limit Airbnb activities in their destination. This study investigates the impact of Airbnb in the city of Amsterdam on: (a) the average housing value per m² and (b) the business growth in a tourism-centric local economy. A large dataset is collected from Inside Airbnb on the supply of Airbnb listings and associated hosts. Neighbourhood data on demographics, as well as on housing, spatial, and economic indicators, was collected from the official statistical agencies of Amsterdam. The dataset spanned 5 years (2015–2019) and was collected at the detailed level of 99 neighbourhoods in the city. Fixed effects Panel-Corrected Standard Errors models were used and a significant effect of Airbnb listings was found on both the property value per m² and the touristification of neighbourhoods—modelled as the percentage of tourism-related activities in total neighbourhood business activities. At the same time, other explanatory variables appeared to be equally significant, and therefore contradict a myopic view on the drivers of neighbourhood touristification.

Tourism is an important key sector in regional and national economies which appears to have often a favorable recovery potential after a shock, leading to the notion of resilience capacity of regions. In the context of a tourism-led growth mechanism, the concept of tourism-led resilience capacity is introduced (constituted of sustained tourism resilience and speed of recovery). The analytical framework is tested for the 2008–2012 financial crisis in European Union by examining relevant data from European NUTS 2 regions. The research is unfolded on two complementary axes: (a) assessing the resilience of the tourism sector, and (b) estimating the weight of tourism in the overall resilience performance of EU regions. Finally, several implications for regional and European policies are addressed as well, particularly related to the role of innovation and diversification in increasing the recovery speed following a disruption.

Using the historic annual visitor data, this study analyzed the recent trends of inbound visitors to Busan and Fukuoka Metros and estimated the economic impact of Japanese (or Korean) visitor spending in Busan (or Fukuoka) Metro. Trend analysis clearly indicates the rapid growth in the number of Korean visitors to Fukuoka since 2011, whereas the growth in the number of Japanese visitors is sluggish and even on a decline since the early 2010s. With the recent surge of Chinese visitors to Japan and Korea, the relative shares have declined, but these two neighboring countries still exchange a large number of visitors. Busan and Fukuoka Metro governments have been working together for the successful launch of Fukuoka-Busan Supra-Regional Economic Zone; however, they have not yet shown any tangible results, especially in the tourism industry. The economic impact analyses in this study show that the limited inter-industrial linkages of the tourism industry between Yeongnamkwon and Kyushu, the two closest cross-border neighboring regions between Korea and Japan. Two cross-border metros (Busan and Fukuoka) in these regions should initiate a set of strategies for tourism destination development collaboratively. By codeveloping and marketing various tourism resources such as islands between two metros, Busan-Fukuoka megapolitan cluster can be recognized as the Mediterranean in Northeast Asia and grows as a destination for the growing demand for cruise tourism in Asia, especially among Chinese tourists. Multimodal travel packages for domestic travelers can be extended to include Busan for Japanese travelers and Fukuoka for Korean travelers. Two metro governments are required to build a comprehensive understanding of the travelers’ behavior in both destinations and to develop tourism products by effectively linking the two destinations. Busan-Fukuoka tourism bureau can be formed and it can develop a common platform and survey instruments to collect information from visitors.

Confinement measures associated with Covid-19 have a major impact on the movement of people around the world and therefore on tourism. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the impact of those measures in tourism regions looking at the Azores Island through an econometric model, inspired by the Economic Base Model. The model uses panel data, by year and island relative to basic regional activities: milk production, hosts, fisheries, public transferences and, negatively, regional public debt. Results allow to perceive the impact of Covid-19 on tourism and to estimate the effects in total employment and population per island. The conclusion is that islands with more tourism suffered a major impact but also recover faster.