Understanding the roles of urban configuration on spatial heterogeneity and submarket regionalisation of house price pattern in a mix-scale hedonic model: The case of Shanghai, China

Hedonic model is a powerful tool to investigate the important factors featuring cities' house markets globally; but the development of a local regression approach named as 'Mixed Geographically Weighted Regression' (MGWR) has brought a new insight into urban studies in the field of house price modelling with a proper consideration of spatial heterogeneity, which enables urban planners to know valuable local and global information about elements that factor the property value. In this paper, we proposed a two-step framework to understand the spatial heterogeneity and submarket regionalisation via MGWR in a case study of Shanghai. In the first step, a mixed GWR hedonic model is adopted with the incorporation of globally fixed effect and local factors. In this manner, the influence surface of spatial configuration and land use settings on house price patterns are measured by controlling other elements. Compared with the outputs of ordinary least squares (OLS) analysis and purely local model, the results of specified model in this study are more promising, indicating that the spatial heterogeneity of house price is a complex urban system. In the second stage, a data-driven approach is adopted to detect the spatially homogeneous submarkets based on the coefficients of accessibility indices obtained from MGWR instead of the raw data. Comparison of a regular cluster analysis using housing structural information and the prosed approach is conducted. The results suggest that spatial accessibility and function accessibility are key factors in shaping spatially continuous housing sub-markets on multiple scales with other elements. The findings finally reveal that multi-level modelling procedures provide additional and useful insights into the varying relationships between spatial layouts and the housing price distribution and that urban configuration not only affects house price pattern but also influence shifting housing submarkets

Successful Marketing Strategies for Promoting Event Destinations

Travel and tourism has been recognized as being an important driver of jobs, growth and economic recovery in the United States. Meetings, events and incentive travel contribute $98.7 billion of the direct spending,$15.0 billion in taxes and 859,000 jobs. As a result, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in the United States are taking advantage of this impact for growth in their destinations. As a destination marketing organization\u27s main job responsibility is to promote their destination to attract visitors, which requires superior marketing strategies to achieve these goals. This research investigates the marketing strategies of DMOs in the United States. The specific purposes of the paper are: (1) to explore the incentives and marketing strategies used by DMOs to attract clients to a destination (2) to explore the importance of the strategic marketing features on a destination\u27s desirability and (3) to provide the most effective destination marketing strategies for promoting a destination. The data for this study were obtained by way of a survey and documentation. The target population for this study was DMOs in the United States of America and the unit of analysis was each individual DMO. The sample limitation for this study was destinations with populations less than 300,000. The sample selection acquired from the DMAI membership list for this study was a convenience sample consisting of 142 DMOs. Out of 142 surveys, 19 were collected and 13 were usable. Therefore, the data from 13 respondents were analyzed in this study. Descriptive statistics (Mean, Percentage, and Frequencies) were used to analyze the data collected for this study. The results of the research reveal the importance of when DMOs are developing the marketing strategies for promoting their destination, there are some key elements that should be involved in their planning for success in attracting groups, (1) incorporating valued incentives, (2) using the most effective marketing strategies such as word-of-mouth and (3) enhancing and promoting the features of their destination, such as accessibility, cost of living, attractions, facilities and services, and image, brand and perception

Edessa Greenways: A Land Use Planning Tool Promoting Sustainable Development in Northern Greece

Known historically as the “City of Water”, Edessa is one of many ancient small hill towns situated in a forested river valley found at the northwest part of Greece\u27s Macedonia region. Bordering with FYROM, Albania and Bulgaria, it sits at the edge of a plateau overlooking the historically rich Plains of Hellas; atop a vast agricultural plain that extends east to Thessalonica, some 120 kilometers. Small rivers run through Edessa boasting an intricate system of waterwayscanals, rivulets, and waterfalls-intertwined with small streets, walking paths and scenic overlooks. The rivers fall spectacularly 70m down from the ledge to the plain below. These waterfalls are a well-known and celebrated natural feature. The new extended municipality includes both towns of Edessa and neighboring town Anissa encompassing a rural “green corridor” agricultural area between them. It comprises the study area which extends in the valley of the River Edesseos, rising in the Agras Nissi Vritta wetlands and Lake Vegoritida. North of Edessa recreational itineraries include abundant ski resorts, ornithological reserves, lakes and archeological sites. Unless the municipality of Edessa generates new economic growth, it will continue to lose a valuable human resource, its youth. The mayor wishes to create new hope and energy for the new municipality through economic investment and physical restructuring. Improvements here could reverberate throughout the region and potentially motivate further investment. Renovated small hotels and lodgings have emerged as outsiders begin to see the potential value of Edessa\u27s future. Egnatia Motorway, the region’s greatest infrastructural project, has already transformed travel times and accessibilities across northern Greece bringing closer the emerging economies of Western and Eastern Europe. Environmental considerations for the region are underway as two transnational agreements, the EU\u27s NATURA Network 2000 and the RAMSAR Convention of 1971, continue to ensure the preservation and protection of sensitive ecosystems and wetlands for the foreseeable future. But this green corridor, however scenic, suffers from inattention and minimal investment. As many regions of great natural beauty dotted with small agricultural towns across Europe continue their dependence upon cultural and ecological tourism, questions that define and frame broader issues of design, sustainability and growth in northern Greece, were considered throughout the planning process: a) How sustainable development and design issues of a region can be sensitively addressed, while developing a strategy that provides socio-cultural, economic and environmental sustainability? b) How can landscape and infrastructure design work synergistically to address the demands of connectivity and increased capacity while also promoting a sense of identity and placeness for a rural region? c) How can issues of sustainability and environmental stewardship be calibrated to the specifics of local culture and geography? d) How can recent shifts in the regional geopolitical sphere be actuated to bolster tourism and economic development? e) How can strategic investments in landscape and infrastructure be leveraged to provide development opportunity for the larger region? f) Can a pronounced shift toward high-end tourism reposition the developmental future of the region? g) Can a new strategy of catalytic rural landscape and infrastructure investments improve the internal structure of the landscape and enhance its connection to the larger region? Like many hill towns across continental Europe impacted by the shift away from small scale agricultural operations and the forces of an increasingly globalized economy, the structural relationship between town and country (in this case, the agrarian hinterlands) has profoundly changed. In the more targeted scope and scale of a municipality, fundamental questions remain: a) What uniquely defining characteristics does Edessa possess? b) What additional attributes does Edessa require? c) What actions can be taken to improve sustainable development and economic growth, while preserving natural resources, promoting cultural resources, and upgrading physical planning integration of Edessa’s urban and rural Mediterranean landscape

Testing the Temporal Stability of Accessibility Value in Residential Hedonic Prices

Purpose – This paper bridges the gap between, on the one hand, supply-driven (urban form and transportation networks) and demand-driven (action-based) accessibility to urban amenities and, on the other hand, house price dynamics as captured through panel hedonic modelling. It aims at assessing temporal changes in the valuation of accessibility, while ordering households’ priorities among access to labour market, schools and shopping outlets. Design/methodology/approach – Several indexes are built using a methodology developed by Thériault et al. (2005, published in Journal of Property Investment and Finance). They integrate car-based travel time on the road network (using GIS), distribution of opportunities (activity places) within the city, and willingness of persons to travel in order to reach specific types of activity places (mobility behaviour). While some measure centrality (potential attractiveness considering travel time, population and opportunities) others consist of action-based indexes using fuzzy logic and capture the willingness to travel in order to reach actual specific activity places (work places, schools, shopping centres, groceries). They summarise suitable opportunities available from each neighbourhood. Rescaled indices (worst - to 100 - best) are inserted simultaneously into a multiplicative hedonic model of single-family houses sold in Quebec City during years 1986, 1991 and 1996 (10,269 transactions). Manipulations of accessibility indexes are developed for ordering their relative impact on sale prices and isolate effects of each index on the variation of sale price, thus providing proxies of households’ priorities. Moreover, a panel-like modelling approach is used to control for changes in the valuation of each property-specific, taxation or accessibility attribute during the study period. Findings – This original approach proves efficient in isolating the cross-effects of urban centrality from accessibility to several types of amenities, while controlling for multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity. Results are in line with expectations. While only a few property-specific attributes experience a change in their marginal contribution to house value during the study period, all accessibility indexes do. Every single accessibility index has a much stronger effect on house values than centrality (which is still marginally significant). When buying their home, households put more emphasis on access to schools than they put on access to the labour market, which in turn, prevail over accessibility to either shopping centres or, finally, groceries. The ordering is rather stable but the actual valuation of a specific amenity may change over time. Practical implications – Better understanding the effect of accessibility to amenities on house values provides guidelines for choosing among a set of new neighbourhoods to develop in order to generate optimal fiscal effects for municipalities. It could also provide guidelines for decision making when improving transportation networks or locating new activity centres.

An Assessment on Destination Characteristics: The Case Study of Pulau Perhentian

The growth of tourism in the small island has brought both positive and negative impacts towards the environment particularly. However, the growth seems disregard with the limited natural resources, facilities, accessibilities and others. Pulau Perhentian, one of the well known islands in Malaysia that is struggling with many physical carrying capacity related issues such as waste management, supply of accommodation, utilities, facilities and environmental protection. Consequently, this study aims to evaluate the destination characteristics that contribute to the management of physical carrying capacity using the criteria matrix. Finding shows that the physical development has marked the island into a yellow colour that indicates the condition of current development. This evaluation is hoped to contribute and assist in future tourism activities and physical developments in Perhentian

An agent-based model as a tool of planning at a sub-regional scale

This paper describes an agent-based model developed to simulate the impact that different planning policies may have in enhancing the attractiveness of the industrial estates located in a network of four municipalities located in the North of Portugal. The policies were simulated using three scenarios that can be distinguished by the municipal level of coordination they are implemented and by the type of action performed. In the model, enterprises are agents looking for a suitable location and the estates attractiveness is based on their level of facilities, amenities, accessibility and in the cost of soil. The coordinated qualification of the industrial estates is the most effective policy to strengthen their attractiveness. It was in this scenario that more industrial estates become attractive and more enterprises relocated. Results also indicate that the promotion of diffused and unqualified industrial estates is an inefficient policy to attract enterprises.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/48567/2008 grant

Sines industrial and logistics zones: FDI determinants applied to Sines and its peers

The goal of this case study is to identify the FDI location determinants according to the most recent scientific studies and match those location determinants with the ones that can be found at Sines’s Cluster. Firstly I had to define the main competitor countries and in order to keep things simple I only chose six countries: Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Egypt and Morocco. The countries Spain, Egypt and Morocco are direct competitors for FDI attraction while Germany and Netherlands compete in terms of containers transhipment. The information was gathered by searching on database like OCDE, World Bank and Bloomberg but also by talking with AICEP Global Parques and with Port Authority of Sines. From my theoretical research reducing total costs of the supply chain is crucial nowadays therefore Portugal can win from this since has a better relation between labour costs and qualified labour than Spain. Morocco has a poor infrastructure reducing its attractiveness but the labour is low qualified and cheap therefore might be good for labour intensive industries. Regarding the Eastern Europe countries, after analysing the location determinants they are inferior to Portugal. Germany and Netherland are better than the rest of the countries analysed in almost all aspects, except in labour costs. Portuguese Government should try to lower Tax in order to increase the competitiveness of the cluster versus the Eastern Europe clusters and also should work to attract a logistics third party in order to increase the efficiency of the cluster.O objectivo deste caso de estudo do Cluster de Sines é identificar os determinantes de localização de acordo com a pesquisa mais recente e comparar com os determinantes de localização que o cluster de Sines tem. Em primeiro lugar foi necessário definir os países que competem directamente sendo restringidos a seis: Alemanha, Holanda, Espanha, Polónia, Egipto e Marrocos. Os países Espanha, Egipto e Marrocos são os principais concorrentes de Portugal em relação à atracção de investimento directo estrangeiro já a Alemanha e Holanda são concorrentes em relação ao transporte de contentores (transhipment). A informação foi recolhida através da pesquisa nas bases de dados da OCDE, Banco Mundial e Bloomberg mas também através de entrevistas com a AICEP Global Parques e Autoridade Portuária de Sines. Com base na pesquisa teórica reduzir os custos totais da cadeia de abastecimento é fundamental e Portugal pode ganhar com isso pois tem melhor relação custo da mão-de-obra versus qualidade da mão-de-obra que a Espanha. Em relação a Marrocos, as infra-estruturas são fracas o que reduz a atractividade deste mas a mão-de-obra é barata e pouco qualificada o que é ideal para indústrias intensivas em mão-de-obra. Quanto aos países do leste da Europa tem uma atractividade mais baixa que Portugal quando considerados todos os determinantes de localização. Já a Alemanha e Holanda são melhores que os restantes Países analisados em todos os aspectos expecto nos custos de mão-de-obra. O Governo Português precisa de reduzir os impostos para que o Cluster de Sines consiga rivalizar com os restantes clusters concorrentes e também devia debruçar-se sobre a necessidade de um operador logístico no cluster de forma a aumentar a eficiência do mesmo

Networked Hospitality and Placemaking in the Sharing Economy

This article investigates the similarities and differences for tangible and intangible elements (factors and language use) contributing to placemaking in Airbnb English language reviews in Paris (59,057 reviews), Barcelona (19,291 reviews) and London (30,403 reviews). This paper contributes to provide new insights on the narrative construction of reputational capital which is connected to placemaking strategies. A combined quantitative approach using large scale text analysis enabled the analysis of review content and style. Patterns in the words usage were identified. Findings suggest that tangible and intangible elements work together in the discourse, contributing to the place-narrative built on the host’s reputational capital. The host-guest interaction is the main aspect of the reviews, followed by the importance of transport and local amenities. Cities have different profiles in the composition of the word clusters which indicates differences in the guests’ perceived experience. Keywords: Hospitality; Sharing economy; Placemaking; Airbnb, Narrative, Reputational capita

A new stakeholder opinion-based rapid sustainability assessment method (RSAM) for existing residential buildings

In many developing countries, several strategies and programs have been established to support the green building initiative, but overall progress is too slow to keep up with the global advances. To accelerate progress in building sustainability as well as to aid the decision-making process of different parties involved, a tailored quantification method for the sustainability performance of buildings is needed. The study presents a Rapid Sustainability Assessment Method (RSAM) – a fast and easy-to-implement system developed using indicators and their respective weights obtained from stakeholders and an assessment approach based on residents’ responses. It was then applied to measure the sustainability performance of several residential buildings (from eras: before 1991, from 1991 to 1998, and after 1998) in the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana). Results differentiated well between the buildings of different era, revealing that even new buildings certified via international green building rating systems do not entirely satisfy the vision of sustainability of the capital’s residents. Although the residents’ opinion-based method was developed for existing residential buildings, it is flexible enough to accommodate future changes e.g. including data obtained from other stakeholders (e.g. building management) and assessing non-residential buildings. RSAM is further applicable to residential buildings constructed after 1950s in other similar regions including post-Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries