Fiji's Sugar Woes: The Challenge of the Land Tenure System, Ethnicity and the Erosion of EU Sugar Preferences

The non-renewal of land leases since 1997 and the impending withdrawal of the European Union's sugar preferences in 2007 have created major uncertainties in Fiji's sugar industry. In the context of this troubled environment, this paper examines the impact of various socio-economic factors on the viability of the industry by focusing on farm efficiency in sugar cane production. It was found that, in general, farmers were inefficient and produced 25% less than their potential output. Among the farm inputs, land (labour) was relatively the most (least) efficiently used input. Empirical evidence also suggests that the more productive Indian farmers rather than the natives be left to farm cane and that large scale farming should be seriously considered by amalgamating land leases. Lastly, it is possible for Fiji's sugar industry to be sustained with the use of appropriate best farming techniques to improve cane yield, and if there is successful expansion of sugar-related products.Random coefficient production frontier, technical efficiency, sugar cane production, Crop Production/Industries,

Construction of An Adult Equivalence Index to Measure Intra-household Inequality and Poverty: Case Study

More often than not, poverty and inequality measures are based on consumption expenditures of households but this does not represent the welfare of the individuals within the household and hence concern has been raised on policy formulation (Haddad and Kanbur 1990). The strong assumption for such data use has been that resources within a household are divided according to need but a growing body of literature has argued that this is not true and that consumption inequality exists within households (Sen 1984, Thomas 1990, Phipps and Burton 1995, Iversen 2003). These studies have shown that certain social configurations such as discriminations or norms against women, the earning capacity of individuals and power structure within the households (traditionally assigned or acquired through earnings) are causes of inequality within the household. When deprivations within the household are not accounted for and if these are aggregated for the whole population, the underestimation of inequality and poverty could be significant and result in gross policy neglect.

The Poverty Burden: A Measure of the Difficulty of Ending Extreme Poverty

In this paper, we consider an extension of the commonly used poverty gap measure that may be used to address he question of whether the elimination of poverty is a feasible objective, given sufficient political commitment. The resources potentially available to address poverty may be measured by the total amount by which the incomes of the non-poor exceed the same poverty line. The ratio of the poverty gap to the resources potentially available is equal to the proportional tax rate on incomes in excess of the poverty line that would be required to fund a transfer sufficient to raise the incomes of all poor people to the poverty line. We refer to this ratio as the ‘poverty burden’ (PB). We provide a formal definition of the poverty burden and an analysis of its properties as a poverty measure.Index numbers, Poverty, Aid

Social valuation and repeat visitation of grey nomads in regional Queensland of Australia

This is the first attempt at measuring the social valuation of self-drive elderly tourists based on a case study of those visiting regional Queensland of Australia in their caravans. Using the negative binomial model incorporating travel cost, and data from a pilot survey of 90 respondents, it was found that the grey nomads' valuation of their visit to the Beaudesert region was A$833 per trip and their demand for travel was price insensitive. This reflects the huge sustainable revenue potential of the grey nomad market for tourism. The study also highlights factors that affect the visit frequency of grey nomads who are often repeat tourists. The findings of this study are an important policy tool for the management and understanding of elderly caravanning tourism

Examining domestic and international visits in Australia’s Aboriginal tourism

Using recent nationwide panel data, an analysis considering the factors that influence the choice of Aboriginal tourism was undertaken. Although international visit numbers were larger than domestic, the former and not the latter is found to be on a decline over time. Gender does not influence domestic visits but females among international visitors are more likely to participate in Aboriginal tourism. Evidence also shows that international marketing strategies aimed at first-time visitors and adult couples, while domestic marketing efforts towards the friends and relatives travel group are likely to work. Blending Aboriginal tourism with attractions in the natural environment and wildlife for international tourists, and for domestic visitors, incorporating it in often visited regional areas can raise participation in this tourism form

The benefits of short stay caravan travel based on the lived experiences of grey caravanners in Australia

Recently there has been an abundance of research on “grey nomad” travel in Australia and this subset of drive tourism is regarded as an expanding travel market segment. Grey nomads are older people, 55 years and older, who travel independently for extended periods of time. However, little attention has been given to short-stay travel by older adults who are members of a caravan club. Such membership involves attendance at monthly rallies over a weekend at a selected destination that is usually approximately 200 km from the club's base location. A total of 30 interviews were conducted to explore the benefits of short-stay caravanning to older people's lives. A number of motivations emerged from the interviews, such as friendship with like-minded travelers; discovering new places; and experiencing feelings of enjoyment. Overall, short-stay travel was strongly linked to the importance of making new friends and being part of a social group, as well as the enjoyment received from discovering new and exciting places to visit

Different Hearth, Different Worth: Sustaining an Emerging Festival in the New Cultural City of Singapore

This study examines some challenges and draws lessons for a new cultural city promoting an emerging festival. This was done by considering the valuation of the festival and its determinants by foreign tourists, domestic tourists, and potential attenders (a group often ignored in the literature). For a young festival, it was encouraging to find that the festival's social value to tourists, local attenders, and potential attenders exceeded the entry fee. Overall, the Biennale was more popular with younger people, and local attenders appreciated the educational dimension of the event. This augurs well for the future of this festival. However, for the festival's sustainability, it is important to strike a balance between catering to preferences of international and local attenders as well as avoid trying to achieve multiple objectives that may lead to a dilution in the focus and identity of the new festival

Panel evidence on the impact of toursim growth on poverty, poverty gap and income inequality

Using a panel of 13 tourism-intensive economies for the period 1995-2012, this paper shows that rising growth in tourism which is proxied by tourism receipts to GDP ratio has an impact on poverty conditional on the poverty measure used. Using a panel Vector Autoregression method, there is little evidence to suggest that growth in tourism reduces headcount poverty. However, the poverty gap measure shows that the amount of money needed to help the poor out of poverty is significantly reduced. Based on different types of Gini coefficient, the results fail to find an improvement in income inequality resulting from tourism growth. Alternative measures such as relative poverty and poverty gap may be considered to better assess the impact of tourism on the poor