Tourism and Growth in a Cross-Section of Countries

We provided an empirical assessment of the relationship between tourism specialisation and economic growth, by updating findings of previous papers written on this issue. We used data for more than 150 countries covering different time spans between 1980 and 2005. Contrary to previous findings (e.g., Brau et al., 2004 and 2007), tourism-based countries did not grow at a higher rate than non-tourism based countries, except for the 1980-1990 period for which, however, data on international tourism are not fully reliable.tourism specialisation, economic growth, developing countries

Off-Season Tourists and the Cultural Offer of a Mass-Tourism Destination: The Case of Rimini

This paper assesses the potential implications on off-season tourism of enhancing the cultural offer of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside holiday destination. Rimini, a city of about 130,000 people hosts a total of around 12 million overnight stays, 10 million of which are concentrated in the summer months. In the last twenty years or so, Rimini has been undergoing a policy of deseasoning, which mainly pivots around business tourism (a new fair quarter and important conference venues have been built) and cultural tourism (the city has been investing on both its cultural heritage and art exhibitions). This assessment is carried out through discrete choice experiments submitted to a sample of about 800 off-season tourists, that is, tourists who visited Rimini outside the summer months. Since tourism can be viewed as a composite good, which overall utility depends on the arrangement of the component characteristics, the choice experiments allow to disentangle the importance and the willingness to pay of tourists for different levels of the holiday's characteristics. The choice model incorporates as attributes a number of possible changes to actual tourism features (which are also the subject of public debate), including them in hypothetical alternative "holiday packages". The conditional logit analysis of the choice experiments can highlight the potential synergies and trade-offs between cultural and business tourism. Moreover, the methodology and the structure of the questionnaire allow a partial comparison of our findings with results stemming from two previous studies carried out in Rimini, respectively on summer tourists and on residents. Such comparison highlights synergies and trade-offs between off-season tourists, summer tourists, and residents.tourism demand; cultural tourism; business tourism, conditional logit; urban planning; choice experiments

Estimating Tourist Externalities on Residents: A Choice Modeling Approach to the Case of Rimini

During their holidays, tourists produce direct and indirect effects on local residents, which can either be positive or negative. In this paper we investigate how residents of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside resort hosting more than ten million national and foreign overnight stays every year, internalise such effects. We use a stated preference approach and, in particular, a discrete choice modelling technique; within this framework, we are able to test some conjectures about residents’ welfare, by measuring their willingness to pay for alternative scenarios regarding the use of the territory. Tourist policies and public investments in the destination affect residents’ welfare, and our results might suggest areas of potential synergies and trade-off, leading to important policy implications.Tourism, External Effects, Discrete Choice Modelling

Assessing visitor satisfaction with tourism rejuvenation policies: the case of Rimini, Italy.

In this paper we assess the appeal of potential interventions on the tourism offer of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside holiday destination, by means of a choice modelling analysis. Tourism can be viewed as a composite good, its overall utility depending on the arrangement of the component characteristics. Our discrete choice experiments incorporate as attributes a number of possible changes to current tourist activities (the subject of public debate), including them in hypothetical alternative holiday packages. The conditional logit analysis indicates that tourists show lesser preference for interventions aimed at protecting the environmental integrity of the beach and greater preference for those, such as the creation of a pedestrianised seafront with late-night opening of amenities and facilities, that are likely to diminish the role of the traditional sea, sun and sand component of the overall holiday experience.

Demand Distribution Dynamics in Creative Industries: the Market for Books in Italy

We studied the distribution dynamics of the demand for books in Italy. We found that for each of the three broad sub-markets into which the book publishing industry can be classified - Italian novels, foreign novels and non-fiction - sales over a three-year sample can be adequately fitted by a power law distribution. Our results can be plausibly interpreted in terms of a model of interactions among buyers exchanging information on the books they buy.Book publishing industry; Information transmission; Power law distribution

ANGKA KEBERHASILAN TRANSFER EMBRIO PADA SAPI ACEH

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui angka kebuntuingan sapi aceh setelah transfer embrio. Sampel yang digunakan adalah 6 ekor sapi aceh betina (3 ekor donor 3 ekor resipien) yang telah didiagnosis sehat reproduksinya, dengan kisaran umur 5-8 tahun, dan mempunyai minimal dua kali siklus reguler. Sapi-sapi disuperovulasi menggunakan protokol standar menggunakan hormon follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Pada hari (-2) dilakukan palpasi rektal untuk mengetahui status reproduksi dan keberadaan korpus luteum, pada hari (-1) sapi donor dan resipien diinjeksi menggunakan PGF2?, pada hari (0) sapi estrus, pada hari (9-12) sapi diinjeksi dengan FSH dosis menurun (3-3, 2-2, 1-1, 0,5-0,5 ml), pada hari (11) sapi resipien diinjeksi dengan PGF2? kedua, pada hari (12) sapi donor diinjeksi dengan PGF2? kedua, pada hari (13-14) dilakukan inseminasi, dan pada hari (20-21) dilakukan koleksi dan transfer embrio. Koleksi embrio dilakukan dengan cara tanpa operasi (non surgical) pada hari ke 7 setelah inseminasi buatan. Evaluasi embrio mengunakan mikroskop dengan pembesaran 70x. Embrio yang dapat ditransfer embrio adalah kelas A atau kelas B. Dari hasil konfirmasi konsentrasi progesteron pada hari ke-21 kebuntingan, 1 dari 3 resipien mempunyai konsentrasi >5 ng/ml yang mengindikasikan kebuntingan. Dari hasil penelitian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa angka keberhasilan transfer embrio pada sapi aceh adalah 33,33%

Demand Distribution Dynamics in Creative Industries: the Market for Books in Italy

We study the distribution dynamics of the demand for books in Italy. We find that for each of three broad sub-markets in which the book publishing industry can be classified Italian novels, foreign novels and essays sales over a three-year sample can be adequately fitted by a power law distribution. Our results can be plausibly interpreted in terms of a model of interactions among buyers exchanging information on the books they buy.Book publishing industry; Information transmission; Power law distribution.

The Inbetweeners: Young people making sense of youth anti-social behaviour

Beginning with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the UK government’s ‘Anti-social Behaviour Agenda’ has served to label all young people as potentially anti-social. This study describes and analyses young people’s accounts of anti-social behaviour and the impact of anti-social behaviour legislation on young people living in a rural context. Through semi-structured interviews with eighteen teenagers in a rural northern town who had undertaken anti-social behaviour but were not subject to any individual control measures, the research explores the participants’ perceptions of their (informal) identification as anti-social, their interactions with institutions of social control and how these factors impacted on their sense of self. In particular, it explores the strategies that the respondents utilised to avoid internalising a deviant identity and through doing so examines the relationship between anti-social behaviour and youth as a transition. Whilst none of the respondents considered themselves to be anti-social, they had all been subject to informal control measures including being ‘moved on’ and having their details taken by the police. The findings indicate that for these young people, anti-social behaviour is inexorably tied to their liminal position as ‘youths’ and this allows their identities to be fluid and constantly changing. The respondents understand their social position/s as ‘in-between’ a variety of statuses, and it is postulated that the widely acknowledged vague nature of ASB definition and their identities as ‘youths’ allows them to negotiate the space between a pro- and anti-social identity without internalising either. They therefore construct anti-social behaviour as a normal part of conventional youth, and something which they will certainly ‘grow out of’

Improving Comprehension in the Content Area of American History through the Use of Poetry versus Content through Prose Form for Fourth-Grade, Urban, African American Students

This study explored the effects on comprehension of content material taught through poetry as opposed to teaching through prose form. Subjects involved were twenty-two African American students in a fourth grade classroom within a large city school district in Western New York. The researcher placed students into two heterogeneous groupings based on the comprehension levels from the May, 1996 Degrees of Reading Power test administered in that district. All students involved in the study received instruction through both formats (poetry and prose) over a four day period. Students in both groups were taught content through poetry one day and received instruction through prose form on another. Both groups were asked to complete a journal writing sample for each of the two styles. Rubrics created by the researcher and subsequent raters were used to assess writing samples. Groups were kept to a limit of eleven participants to insure appropriate time to reflect, reread material or to ask questions before they completed their writing tasks assigned. Two different topics were taught to avoid unfair bias due to prior knowledge of the subject matter. A two tailed t test was used to determine the effect on comprehension that the varying formats may have had. The results revealed no statistically significant difference between the groups. The findings neither support or disclaim the use of poetry versus prose in regard to the teaching of content and fostering comprehension of text