High speed rail effects on tourism: Spanish empirical evidence derived from China's modelling experience

Abstract

China and Spain are currently among the top tourist destinations, coming third and fourth place in the 2014 world ranking of tourist arrivals, behind France and the US. Tourism is crucial for the economies of Spain and China, and both countries have the longest high speed rail (HSR) networks in the world. What role has HSR infrastructure played in the development of tourism in both countries? Little research has been done to date, even in Europe, to estimate empirically how tourism indicators are affected by new HSR lines. In 2012 a multivariate panel analysis by Chen and Haynes was applied to 27 Chinese regions, and confirmed that emerging high speed rail services (during the period 1999-2010) had significant positive impacts on boosting tourism in China. No similar empirical tool has ever been tested in Europe. The aim of this paper is to analyse and validate this tool when applied to the Spanish context, and to develop a comparative analysis with the Chinese case study. The methodology is applied to 47 Spanish provinces during the period 1999-2015, and the results clearly reveal a positive but lower-value link (compared to China) between the increase in certain tourism outputs (foreign arrivals and revenues) and HSR network construction. However, further research is needed into the model's limitations, namely the availability of suitable tourism indicators in the official databases, the HSR explanatory variables considered, and the ability to detect "circular cause-effects" between HSR and tourism.

High‐speed rail and tourism in China: An urban agglomeration perspective

“…The estimated impact of HSR on tourist arrivals in China is significantly larger than those reported in previous studies based on more advanced economies (Albalate et al, ; Campa et al, ). An important reason is that the transport infrastructure in China during the early 2000s was less developed and of poor quality in terms of travel experience.…”

“…Studies pertaining to these impacts of HSR are mainly conducted in Europe and China. In Spain, HSR lines contribute marginally to the increase of international visitors, and their impacts on the domestic counterpart or overall visitor arrivals are minimal (Albalate et al, ; Campa et al, ). Although tourism revenues witness a significant increase with HSR inauguration (Campa et al, ), improved accessibility does not impact overnight stays and has a detrimental effect on occupancy rate (Albalate et al, ).…”

“…In Spain, HSR lines contribute marginally to the increase of international visitors, and their impacts on the domestic counterpart or overall visitor arrivals are minimal (Albalate et al, ; Campa et al, ). Although tourism revenues witness a significant increase with HSR inauguration (Campa et al, ), improved accessibility does not impact overnight stays and has a detrimental effect on occupancy rate (Albalate et al, ). The inauguration of HSR may even eviscerate the airline industry, inducing a negative indirect effect on tourist outcomes that can hardly be offset by the new traffic via HSR (Albalate & Fageda, ).…”

“…However, it still remains unclear how this new transportation system may entice a tourist influx, especially for different tourist segments from within and outside the country. Therefore, the first research question is raised: How does the HSR in China affect domestic and international tourist arrivals? A closer investigation of the literature reveals that most of the previous studies have focused on the holistic effect of HSR construction and operation (e.g., Campa, López‐Lambas, & Guirao, ; Chen & Haynes, ), and less is known about (a) the intercity dynamics in a hierarchical urban structure and (b) the heterogeneity of HSR's impact among individual cities.…”

“…A closer investigation of the literature reveals that most of the previous studies have focused on the holistic effect of HSR construction and operation (e.g., Campa, López-Lambas, & Guirao, 2016;Chen & Haynes, 2015), and less is known about (a) the intercity dynamics in a hierarchical urban structure and (b) the heterogeneity of HSR's impact among individual cities.…”