Tourism expenditure of EU-27 regions under the global economic crisis

This study focuses on the underpinnings of the households’ tourism expenditure decisions during the global economic crisis in 2009. In particular, this study tests if during an economic crisis, decisions on tourism expenditure depend on climate conditions of the place of origin, GDP and GDP growth, among other well-known determinants. It should be noted that cutback decisions on tourism expenditure are not independent of destination choice, and for that reason the model requires the estimation of both decisions simultaneously. The methodology proposed in this paper represents a new way of analyzing the impacts of an economic crisis on tourism expenditure. Two levels of analysis can be considered. On the one hand, macroeconomic data of tourism expenditure is usually explored. On the other hand, the microeconomic analysis of the household and regional variables of their environment that may enrich the analysis. If the econometric model takes into account all these variables simultaneously, then the linkage between GDP changes and tourists´ behavior is enriched and it may be estimated more accurately. As far as we know, this paper is the first study that models the cutback decision on tourism expenditure. Modeling such decision is a challenge because it is not independent of the destination choice. For instance, households that travel domestically may not be as sensitive to the crisis as those who travel abroad. For this purpose, the econometric model employed is a simultaneous system of cutback decision and destination choice. More precisely, Simultaneous Semi-Ordered Bivariate Probit has proved to be the most useful econometric model for the estimation because it deals with the simultaneity of the cutback and destination choice decisions as well as the endogeneity. This research has proved that during an economic crisis, households react cutting back their tourism expenditure depending on GDP, GDP growth, and climate in their place of origin. In that sense, there are marked differences between North-European and Mediterranean regions. It is interesting to note that regions with bad climate are less likely to cut back than those households located in regions with good climate.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Internal and external effects of quality on competitiveness: Applications for the hotel sector in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyze — from a global perspective — the main relationships existing between service quality and businesses competitiveness. To this end, a simultaneous equations model is presented. This model enables distinguishing between the external and internal effects of quality on competitiveness, and empirically verifies a set of hypotheses of great significance for the hotel industry. The data used to empirically verify this model were gathered from hotels owned by a national hotel company in Spain. The client survey carried out by the hotel — in the form of questionnaires — was the basis for creating the service quality indicators and establishing their most relevant dimensions. The quality indicator was created for each hotel based using Structural Equation Modelling (S.E.M.). On the other hand, the economic and financial data pertaining to the hotels served to create competitiveness indicators for each of them. The sign and value of the coefficients estimated by the model presented lead to a series of conclusions regarding the complex sequence of direct and indirect causal relationships between quality and competitiveness. The estimation obtained was used to empirically verify a set of key hypotheses regarding the competitiveness of these hotels and to propose measures designed to improve it.

Environment, innovation and productivity: application of a CDM model to the spanish service sector

The main aim of this study is to determine the impact of innovation on productivity in service sector companies — especially those in the hospitality sector — that value the reduction of environmental impact as relevant to the innovation process. We used a structural analysis model based on the one developed by Crépon, Duguet, and Mairesse (1998). This model is known as the CDM model (an acronym of the authors’ surnames). These authors developed seminal studies in the field of the relationships between innovation and productivity (Griliches 1979; Pakes and Grilliches 1980). The main advantage of the CDM model is its ability to integrate the process of innovation and business productivity from an empirical perspective.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Environmental concern in tourism from a cross-national perspective

This paper analyzes how tourist from European countries consider environmental issues when making decisions about their their holiday plans. Modelling these decisions is a challenge because environmental concerns depends on both individiual characteristics and contextul factors related to the country or residence, such as cultural, social and economic condictions. For that reason, environmental support by households exhibit a particular type of grouped structure, where individual, firs level, are nested into countries, second level. This hierarchical structure of date are dealed with a multilevel aproach. The estimates from a Two-Level Random Intercept Logistic Model and the post-estimation analysis demonstrate that the effects of country vary randomly, and that there is significant variance in the level of tourists´ environmental support within and between countries.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Environmental attitudes of European tourists: A multilevel analysis

Literature shows that heterogeneity in willingness to pay for traveling is explained by regional clusters because not all the tourists are equally sensitive to income and price adjustments. This paper demonstrated that such heterogeneity in tourist behavior is also shown in environmental considerations when they are making decisions about their holiday plans. Popular support for environmental protection among tourists from EU-27 countries were investigated. The findings are congruent with the hypothesis that environment support depends not only on individual characteristics of themselves but also of certain contextual variables related to their place of residence.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Explaining tourists´ support for environmental protection

Any movement towards sustainable tourism is dependent not only upon the industry and other key stakeholders but also the demand side, namely the tourists. Yet, there is a limited literature from the demand point of view. In this area, contributions to an understanding of tourists’ support to sustainable development are necessary. This paper analyzes the main determinants in tourist behavior regarding the environmental considerations when they are making decisions about their holiday plans. General literature on this issue highlights the need to consider socio-economic variables of the individual as well as the attributes related of their style of living. If the econometric model takes into account all these variables simultaneously, then the linkage between contextual changes and tourists´ behaviour is enriched and it may be estimated more accurately. In this sense, a multilevel approach using a random-intercept logistic models is proposed, since tourists belong to a country are affected by the same contextual variables. The analysis comprises a joint dataset composed by microdata belong to the survey Attitudes of Europeans Towards Tourism, which corresponds to Flash Eurobarometer 281, macrodata from Eurostat (GDP in pps and GDP growth) and additional variables profiles from the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index. Country-specific effects are calculated across the EU-27 countries, which corroborated that attitudes to the sustainable tourism are heterogeneous geo-graphically. The higher the level of GDP, the lower the level of tourists´ support. These results could be explained because tourists of richer countries already have to pay more tax for envi-ronmental protection. Age, gender and educational attainment are relevant. Motivations for travelling, size of the community, type of the destination, and environmental sustainability indi-cators of the place of residence are also important factors.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Environmental engagement of costumer in the tourism industry

This article contributes to a better understanding of tourists’ environmental concerns, assuming that distance from the place of residence is relevant. The analysis is conducted for EU-27 countries, combining micro-data, correspond to the Flash Eurobarometer 281 drawn from the European Commission and macro-data from different international sources. Since the environmental attitudes may vary across different cultures and societies, the individuals should be nested into countries. Therefore, it is inappropriate to analyze data using traditional regression analysis. Mixed model specifically may take into account such hierarchical data structure considering simultaneously individual and contextual variables. A general finding from the estimates indicated that significant variance exists within and among nations in the level of environmental support. This finding is congruent with the necessity of simultaneously assessing the effect of individual and country levels variables on environmental support across the European countries. Additionally, this paper demonstrates that people who are actively involved in protecting the environment at home do not maintain this type of behavior when they go on vacation, which may have negative environmental consequences on destinations, albeit involuntarily. The environmental concerns of tourists when travelling domestically were around 15% higher than those travelling abroad. Additionally, the random slope variance regarding destination choice parameter is statistically significant, which allows us to explore the underpinning behind the heterogeneous pattern across countries. Our results can be of great importance to minimize the negative environmental impacts when traveling, and represents an interesting starting point to reduce the environmentally unsustainable behaviors in the tourist field

Tourism expenditure under the global economic crisis: the role of climate in the place of residence

Tourists from different European regions have reacted heterogeneously during the Global Economic Crisis. Such variability is due to different preferences and willingness to pay for tourism. This paper explores the underpinnings behind such heterogeneity. Regional variables and household socioeconomic variables are gathered to understand tourists' expenditure cutback decision. Since the cutback decision is not independent of the destination choice, a Simultaneous Semi-Ordered Bivariate Probit model is specified, which deals with the simultaneous estimation of both decisions and endogeneity. Post-estimation results are based on GIS, contours and non-parametric analysis. They prove that during an economic crisis, tourists' cutback decisions on tourism expenditure depend on climate conditions of the place of origin, GDP and GDP growth.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional de Andalucí