An Analysis of the Evolution of Tourism Destinations from the Point of View of the Economic Growth Theory

In this paper we try to build a bridge between the traditional analysis of the evolution of tourism destinations and economic growth theory. With such an aim we develop an environmental growth model for an economy specialized in tourism and we derive the pattern of tourism development with numerical calculations. The results of our simulations do not contradict the general pattern of evolution implied in the Tourism Area Life Cycle Hypothesis, being environmental deterioration and public goods congestion the main reasons for the stagnation of the tourism destination. We also show the importance of the quality of private tourism services in the evolution of the tourism destination.Tourism, Economic growth, Tourism lifcycle

Land, Environmental Externalities and Tourism Development

In a two sectors dynamic model we analyze the process of tourism development based on the accumulation of capital (building of tourism facilities) and the reallocation of land from traditional activities to the tourism sector. The model incorporates the conflict between occupation of the territory by the tourism facilities, other productive activities and availability of cultural, natural and environmental assets that are valued by residents and visitors. We characterize the process of tourism development in two settings: the socially optimal solution and a situation where the costs of tourism expansion are external to the decision makers, where externalities on residents as well as intraindustry externalities are considered. Regarding the optimal solution, we show that it is optimal to limit tourism expansion before it reaches its maximum capacity even in a context where the economic attractiveness of tourism relative to other productive sectors rise continuously. However, in this context and when all the costs of tourism development are externalities the only limit to tourism quantitative expansion is its maximum capacity determined by the availability of land. Finally, we show that excessive environmental degradation from the future generations’ point of view is not a problem of discounting the future but rather a problem of externalities that affects negatively the current and future generations.Intertemporal land allocation, Structural economic change, Tourism industry

INVESTMENT EFFECTS OF ENDOGENOUS AND EXOGENOUS DEPRECIATION: IMPROVED PASTURES IN URUGUAY

The depreciation rate for capital assets may have endogenous and exogenous components. Change in the exogenous component depends on technological change and/or environmental factors, shifts the production function, and independently affects profitability and investment. Change in the endogenous component does not. These hypotheses are tested using data on Uruguayan grass-legume pastures.Land Economics/Use,

Hysteresis in vibrated granular media

Some general dynamical properties of models for compaction of granular media based on master equations are analyzed. In particular, a one-dimensional lattice model with short-ranged dynamical constraints is considered. The stationary state is consistent with Edward's theory of powders. The system is submitted to processes in which the tapping strength is monotonically increased and decreased. In such processes the behavior of the model resembles the reversible–irreversible branches which have been recently observed in experiments. This behavior is understood in terms of the general dynamical properties of the model, and related to the hysteresis cycles exhibited by structural glasses in thermal cycles. The existence of a “normal” solution, i.e., a special solution of the master equation which is monotonically approached by all the other solutions, plays a fundamental role in the understanding of the hysteresis effects.Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica (Spain) through Grant No. PB98-112

Lattice Induced Resonances in One Dimensional Bosonic Systems

We study the resonant effects produced when a Feshbach dimer crosses a scattering continuum band of atoms in an optical lattice. We numerically obtain the exact spectrum of two particles in a one-dimensional lattice and develop an effective atom-dimer Hamiltonian that accurately captures resonant effects. The lattice-induced resonances lead to the formation of bound states simultaneously above and below the scattering continuum and significantly modify the curvature of the dimer dispersion relation. The nature of the atom-dimer coupling depends strongly on the parity of the dimer state leading to a novel coupling in the case of negative parity dimers. From the exact solutions we extract the dimer Wannier function from which we quantitatively determine the effective Hamiltonian parameters for a many-body description.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published versio

La memoria, caja negra de la comunicación

Platon, Aristoteles y San Agustin son el punto de partida para una reflexion sobre la memoria, que prosigue con Bergson y con James. Los marcos sociales de la memoria, de Halbwachs, introducen un analisis de la memoria colectiva, asociado al codigo y a los mensajes. La doble naturaleza de la informacion –ontologica y gnoseologica-, y la consideracion de la memoria como caja negra de la comunicacion politica, concluyen en una reflexion sobre la memoria y la identidad.Plato, Aristotle and Saint Agustin are the points of depart of a reflection about memory which continues with Bergson and James. Social frames of memory of Halbachs introduce an analysis of collective memory, relied with codes and with messages. The double nature of information –at the same time ontological and epistemological –and the perspective of memory as a “black box” of political communication lead us to a reflection about memory and identity

La risa, una actividad de la inteligencia.

S With rich description anó exasnples, the author revises Humour as an elementary social and intellectual tool, which has been used by great writers from the past and present times to express how human mmd can go further than reason. Ayee des exaniples et descriptions trés tiches l'auteur nous expose le con-cept de l'J--Iumourcomme un instrument intellectuel et social, qui a été utilisé par des grands écrivains et artistes du passé et du présent pour communiquer comment la pensée humaine peut aller plus bm que la raison. Mit lebendige Beschreibungen und Bildungen der Autor erzáhlt der Be-griff des Humor als ein intelektuelles und gesselschaftliches Werkzeug, das dic grésste Kunstler und Scriftsteller von alíe Zeite utilisiert haben und ein Symbol ist der menschliche Fahigkeit, weiter entfern der Verntinft gehen

"No usarás el nombre de la ciencia en vano". Manifiesto por la Universidad del siglo XXI. Carta abierta a los jóvenes investigadores y a los investigadores no tan ¡óvenes.

Sin resume

"Cruising is Risky Business"

As the fastest growing sector within the international tourism industry, having grown at roughly double the rate of international tourism as a whole, the cruise liner business has shown impressive growth in the North American and European markets. For port management purposes, as well as for transport policy, it is essential to be able to forecast accurately cruise passenger arrivals and their variability. In the presence of time-varying variances (or volatility), it is crucial to model such volatility in order to provide sensible forecast intervals in addition to the forecast themselves. Time-varying volatility in port management is important because governments and businesses need to be aware of the uncertainty associated with the number of cruise passenger arrivals and their associated growth. In calculating income elasticities, port taxes and tourist taxes, it is essential to obtain accurate estimates of cruise passenger arrivals and their volatility. Moreover, in an international context in which natural disasters, terrorism, crime and ethnic conflicts, among others, have significant impacts on tourism, it is crucial to assess the persistence of shocks on cruise passenger arrivals for effective crisis management plans, including different forms of co-operation among ports facing similar shocks. Appropriate models are required to enable optimal private and public decision making in designing ports for cruise ships. Daily cruise passenger arrivals data for the three major ports in the Balearic Islands, Spain, namely Palma, Ibiza and Mahon, for the period 1997-2006, as well as for the high cruise season for each island,are analyzed using alternative conditional mean and conditional volatility models in order to provide empirical support for purposes of optimal decision making. Four different types of asymmetries are analyzed according to the positive and negative shocks to daily cruise passenger arrivals, as well as from distinctions between the high and low cruise seasons. The estimates of cruise passenger arrivals and their volatility are generally found to be sensible and to have valid statistical properties. Likelihood ratio tests of the constancy of coefficients in the high and low cruise seasons indicate that the weekly delayed response of cruise passenger arrivals differ significantly spatially across islands and temporally across seasons.