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on Tourism Economics |
| By: | Jan van der Borg (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca’ Foscari); Antonio Russo (University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses a key issue in the framework of modern urban development policies: the role of cultural tourism in processes of urban transformation. The analysis focuses specifically on how the emphasis on the symbolic in the restructuring of certain areas of the city may function like a spinwheel for the regeneration of urban economies, and on the stability of this process. The paper presents the cases of three European cities -Barcelona, Manchester and Rotterdam-, all of which are believed to be templates in cultural planning, and have been successful, to different extents, as tourism destinations. In the three cities, the peculiar relationship between area renewal through cultural development projects and tourism has unravelled in different ways that are revelatory of structural, as well as contingent, differences in tourism policy organisation and contexts, and that present different challenges for the future. |
| JEL: | O52 R00 R58 Z10 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2008_21&r=tur |
| By: | Correani, Luca; Garofalo, Giuseppe |
| Abstract: | The paper presents an application of the chaos theory to tourism, a sector in which operators' choices are particularly elaborate and complex. The dynamics of the tourist industry are, in fact, the result of close interactions between units of production, tourist flows, local authorities and natural resources. These interactions do not necessarily lead to a regular trend in the development of the tourist industry as proposed by Butler; on the contrary, irregularities of various types are very possible. The model microfounds rigorously on both the demand and the supply side. Firms and tourists operate under the hypothesis of limited rationality, the former in an oligopolistic context, the latter on the basis of mechanisms of evolutionary selection. Although not exhaustive, the model forms a theoretical platform that can be easily adapted to hypotheses and situations that differ from those originally hypothesized. As a consequence, this paper presents a series of numerical simulations. The results show the chaotic nature of a tourist flow, which limits the practicability of measures introduced to stabilise the system. In their place, measures are needed that stimulate a continuous reshaping of the system in relation to the factors that tend to change it. |
| Keywords: | sustainable tourism; chaos; evolutionary games; Butler's cycle |
| JEL: | L10 L83 Q01 C73 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9677&r=tur |
| By: | Robert Lifran; Vanja Westerberg |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to elicit social preferences for various organizational and managerial changes in the landscape of the agricultural area called “Ancien Marais des Baux”, at the foothill of the Alpilles Mountain, in Provence. We present preliminaries results from a pilot survey conducted in the area in the winter of 2008. In our research, the environmental resource is the landscape, defined in terms of its attributes and levels these attributes would take with and without various management options. We use the Choice Experiment to determine what the preferred landscape is, and under wetland restoration, the most desired features that the wetland should provide. The random parameter logit model is employed to take into account variances in unobserved preference heterogeneity. Consistent with expectations, we observed that respondents who are neither green, have little attachment to wetlands, have poor understanding of wetland services, are WTP less ceteris paribus for all the attributes in question, compared to the respondents that have green behaviour, knows about wetlands or cares about their existence in Marais des Baux. Not surprisingly, the respondents considering the wetland in Marais des Baux, part of their cultural heritage, wants to visit it in the future, and preserve it for future generations, have the greatest WTP for any combination of attributes. We also observed the importance of mosquito control in any support of wetland restoration among respondents. Indeed, restoration on an advanced scale is only accepted in the presence of biological mosquito control. Distinct landscape features, such as tree hedges which still allows for the view of the massif of the Alpilles are valued equally high as the recreational opportunites related to the wetland. Biodiversity is low on the priority list compared to other attributes, but still positively valued. |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lam:wpaper:08-12&r=tur |