Spatial Variation in Tourism in the United States: An Industrial View

This paper attempts to empirically document the spatial variations in employment and revenue for selected businesses in the tourism industries of 20 states under study. Employment and revenue figures were classified by US Census SIC codes, and separated into two classifications : direct and supporting tourist services. In states with large economies, a diversified economic base frequently minimizes tourism\u27s proportional importance to statewide service economy employment; however, in many states with small economic and population bases, tourism employment made a significant proportional contribution to the service labor market. States with large economies have high absolute revenue in both the direct and supporting tourist services due to large-scale economic activity and linkage. In states with smaller economies, absolute revenue in tourist services is frequently lower due to reduced population and economic size. As statewide revenue in direct tourist services increases, revenue in supporting tourist services tends to increase in a similar fashion, illustrating the proportionality between the direct and supporting tourist services

Where are the Geographers? Newly Incorporated Municipalities (NIMs) in the South

The creation of new cities can have dramatic impacts on urban landscapes regarding tax rates, land use patterns, school districts, and the provision of other municipal services. Between 1990 and 2005, 193 newly incorporated municipalities (NIMs) were created in the South. The study of these new cities falls under the purview of the larger field of boundary change. Boundary change can take the form of annexation, consolidation/ merger, secession, the formation of special districts, and incorporation. This paper examines the current literature on the different forms of boundary change and provides potential explanations for why municipal incorporation is an area of research that has been overlooked by geographers. Through a case study of municipal incorporation in the South, this paper will then explore the ways in which geographers can contribute to our understanding of this topic

Wealth Generation in Metropolitan America: F.I.R.E. As Savior?

The current restructuring of the American economy from goods producing industry to service providing industry has been a focus of concern for many social scientists. While some argue in favor of the rapidly expanding service sector, pointing out that growth in services creates employment and generates income, others emphasize that many service sector jobs pay considerably less than comparable manufacturing sector jobs, which continue to be lost in many metropolitan areas. The Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (F.I.R.E.) industry in particular, is a branch of the service sector that is often associated with the generation of affluence and productivity. This paper examines the importance of the F.I.R.E. industry in 57 Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 3 New England County Metropolitan Areas, and discusses how agglomeration in this industry mayor may not be related to per capita income in these Metropolitan Areas

Predictors of Repeat Winery Visitation in North Carolina

Wine tourism is a relatively fledging industry with a range of important economic development issues. One issue is the identification of key drivers of repeat business, in this case, intention to pay a return visit to a winery or wine region. The purpose of this study is to identify specific factors that may influence wine tourists’ intentions to revisit a winery or wine region in North Carolina. Exhaustive CHAID decision tree analysis was used to identify statistically significant visitor characteristics influencing respondents’ intentions to revisit a winery or wine region in North Carolina. Customer service and the importance it has to the visitors was found to be the best predictor of their intention to revisit

Airport Runway Slots: Limits to Growth

The United States–European Union market accounts for approximately 25% of all international tourist arrivals worldwide, and is arguably the busiest market in the world. This paper argues that landing slot policy and the manner in which airport capacity is allocated among airlines across the north Atlantic is likely to underpin the future geographic structure of the tourism industry. By analyzing the historical evolution of slot policy, this paper attempts to enhance the extant literature on how government authorities allocate scarce airport resources. The paper concludes by arguing that various slot reform proposals need to be adopted to make airports more “elastic” when managing origin-destination tourist flows

The Geography of Air Freight: Connections to U.S. Metropolitan Economies

Despite the rapid growth of air freight shipments, much of the existing literature on the geography of air transportation has paid more attention to passenger travel than air freight. The purpose of this paper is to elevate our understanding of air freight by determining which specific variables most influence and shape the geographic distribution of air freight by metropolitan area using stepwise regression analysis. The empirical results suggest a regression model of five independent variables was the most parsimonious solution where the final model accounted for 71.1% of the variation in air freight shipments by metropolitan area (MA). The most important predictor was the traffic shadow effect, where less populated MAs under the traffic shadow of larger MAs tended to generate lower levels of freight. The model also suggested that other key predictors included the employment market share in transportation-shipping-logistics industries, per capita personal income, the number of medical diagnostic and supplier establishments, and above average wages in high technology. Overall, metropolitan markets with diverse and efficient ground support systems, freight forwarders and other transportation services, a more affluent population, an intense agglomeration of medical laboratories and related suppliers, and a well paid skilled workforce engaged in computer systems design and electronic product manufacturing are more likely to ship freight by air

Spatial Variation in Tourism: An Industrial View

This paper attempts to empirically document the spatial variations in employment and revenue for selected businesses in the tourism industries of 20 states under study. Employment and revenue figures were classified by US Census SIC codes, and separated into two classifications: direct and supporting tourist services. In states with large economies, a diversified economic base frequently minimizes tourism's proportional importance to statewide service economy employment; however, in many states with small economic and population bases, tourism employment made a significant proportional contribution to the service labor market. States with large economies have high absolute revenue in both the direct and supporting tourist services due to large-scale economic activity and linkage. In states with smaller economies, absolute revenue in tourist services is frequently lower due to reduced population and economic size. As statewide revenue in direct tourist services increases, revenue in supporting tourist services tends to increase in a similar fashion, illustrating the proportionality between the direct and supporting tourist services

The Geography of Air Passenger Volume and Local Employment Patterns by U.S. Metropolitan Core Area: 1973-1996

The purpose of this paper is to determine if a statistically significant relationship exists between administrative and auxiliary employment levels and air passenger volume for the top 50 urban-airport complexes in the United States from 1973 to 1996. The goal of this paper is a fairly modest one — to refine and expand the current literature's focus by conducting a broader investigation of the links that exist between air passenger volume and employment levels within local economies. Based on data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Census Bureau County Business Patterns, the major findings of this paper were that the correlation between administrative and auxiliary employment and enplaned passenger volume over time are statistically significant at the 1% level

Air Transportation and Urban-Economic Restructuring: Competitive Advantage in the U.S. Carolinas

The theoretical agenda of this paper is to bring airports and airline operations more squarely into the mainstream of the urban and regional development literature. The paper examines the spatial and temporal patterns of air passenger flows by airport in the US Carolinas. An emphasis is placed on articulating the linkages that exist between airport operations at the local level, the structural composition of the regional economy, and the competitive strategies of the airline industry. Particular attention was paid to administrative and auxiliary employment levels because it is a knowledge-based producer service that tends to seek out markets that offer high levels of air service connectivity to other places. A major finding in this paper is that those US Carolina airports that experienced significant gains in air passenger volume (e.g., Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham) tended to experience comparable gains in the employment levels of administrative and auxiliary workers, particularly in the manufacturing sector

Where are the Geographers? Newly Incorporated Municipalities (NIMs) in the South

The creation of new cities can have dramatic impacts on urban landscapes regarding tax rates, land use patterns, school districts, and the provision of other municipal services. Between 1990 and 2005, 193 newly incorporated municipalities (NIMs) were created in the South. The study of these new cities falls under the purview of the larger field of boundary change. Boundary change can take the form of annexation, consolidation/ merger, secession, the formation of special districts, and incorporation. This paper examines the current literature on the different forms of boundary change and provides potential explanations for why municipal incorporation is an area of research that has been overlooked by geographers. Through a case study of municipal incorporation in the South, this paper will then explore the ways in which geographers can contribute to our understanding of this topic