Territory and Sustainable Tourism Development: a Space-Time Analysis on European Regions

Abstract

Abstract. In the long run, tourism competitiveness depends on the sustainable use of territorial assets: the differentiation of destinations depends on the integration of cultural and natural resources into the tourism supply, but also on their preservation over time. Using advanced spatial econometric techniques this work analyses the relationships between regional tourism competitiveness, the dynamics of tourism demand and investment, as well as the existence of natural resources and cultural assets in the European context. Despite the close relationship between tourism activities and the characteristics of the territories, the application of methods of spatial analysis in tourism studies is still scarce and the results of this work clearly show their potential for this field of research. Among the main findings of this paper, it was observed that natural resources do not have the expected positive impacts on regional tourism competitiveness and that European regions with more abundant natural resources are often developing unsustainable forms of mass tourism with low value added and little benefits for the host communities. The existence of spatial correlation effects suggests that positive spillovers arising from tourism dynamics in neighbourhood regions prevail over potential negative effects related to the competition between destinations. Policy and managerial implications of these results are discussed and further research questions are proposed.

Tourism Diversification and Its Implications for Smart Specialisation

“…Recent studies show that Southern European regions specialising in tourism tend to show high levels of unemployment, slow recovery from financial crisis and low levels of productivity in regions where tourism services are more labour-intensive [14,37]. This is related to tourism low-value added products and services oriented to mass consumption, reduced socio-economic impacts and excessive use of natural resources [12,14]. Other negative impacts of tourism regional specialisation include economic leakage, increased living costs, crime, asset bubbles, crowding out of local businesses-particularly in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs)-the imitation of luxury, consumption, social polarization, demoralization, cultural alienation, pressure on public services e.g., transport, environmental degradation and a decline of other traditional sectors [50].…”

“…Diversification strategies lead to more tourism sustainable development in terms of protection of natural resources and value-added products and services as well as strengthening linkages between tourism and other regional industrial sectors [12]. Diversification as a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder strategy for recovering tourism destinations was categorised as a component of one of the alternative paths for destination restructuring in coastal destinations.…”

“…Nevertheless, given that tourism is vulnerable due to its strong dependency on cultural and natural resources, its competitiveness depends on the sustainable use of territorial assets. Furthermore, the differentiation of destinations depends on the integration of cultural and natural resources into the tourism supply as well as on their preservation over time [12]. The success in using tourism for enhancing sustainable development depends on using diversification and specialisation policies wisely.…”

“…Studies on tourism and smart specialisation have only emerged recently in the context of tourism sustainable development [12,37,38] and sustainable economic growth and resilience [10,39]. This paper is original in being the first to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of tourism diversification including a conceptual framework for studying tourism diversification strategies at the market/product, regional and sectoral levels.…”

Spatial impacts assessment of tourism and territorial capital: A modelling study on regional development in Europe

“…The econometric model to be presented in the following section includes two other types of assets with relevance for tourism attractiveness: the share of the regional territory protected under Natura 2000 (a network of European sites classified under the same criteria in accordance with their ecological value, whose data are available at DG Environment of the European Commission), representing the importance of regional biodiversity for tourism attractiveness; and the number of Cultural Heritage Sites classified by UNESCO in each region, as a measure of the value of the cultural resources existing in each region (information available at the UNESCO website). A systematic presentation of this information and an analysis of the relation between these territorial assets and tourism demand can be found in Romão (), whereas Romão et al () focus on the impacts of these resources on the regional GVA of the tourism sector. It is possible to observe, for both types of resources, a high concentration in the southern part of European.…”