Tourism, cultural activities and sustainability in the Spanish Mediterranean regions: A probit approach

Abstract

Culture is the preferred activity of sun & sand tourists visiting the Spanish Mediterranean regions. Improving our knowledge on the factors surrounding this type of demand appears to be pivotal for the continuous renewal of those mature destinations. With this objective we apply probit models to a data set of more than 200,000 questionnaires accounting for the socio-economic characteristics of the tourists, their trip behaviour, and destination and time fixed effects. Results allow us to identify interesting characteristics of tourism and of cultural activities, making this product a good candidate to contribute to the sustainability of destinations.Keywords: Tourism, cultural activities, sustainability, probit models, tourism policy. ResumenLa cultura es la actividad preferida de los turistas de sol y playa que visitan las regiones del Mediterráneo español. Aumentar el conocimiento de los factores asociados a este tipo de demanda resulta clave para la renovación de estos destinos maduros. Con este objetivo aplicamos modelos probit a una muestra de datos de más de 200,000 cuestionarios, que recogen información sobre las características socio-económicas del turista, su patrón de viaje, y los propios efectos regionales y temporales del análisis. Los resultados de la investigación nos ayudan a identificar características propias del turismo de actividades culturales que lo convierten en un buen candidato para contribuir a mejorar la sostenibilidad de los destinos.

Overtourism: A Literature Review to Assess Implications and Future Perspectives

“…In this framework, according to Veiga and colleagues [43], overtourism can be said to occur when too many visitors or tourists arrive in a particular place at the same time [44,45]. Thus, for Veiga et al [43], overtourism is strictly connected to the problem of mass tourism saturation that exists in many destinations worldwide, diminishing the quality of life of residents and creating negative experiences for tourists.…”

Sustainability as a key driver to address challenges

“…Overtourism happens when too many visitors or tourists arrive in a particular place at the same time (Artal-Tur et al , 2018; Francis, 2018). The problem of mass tourism saturation exists in many destinations worldwide, diminishing the quality of life of residents and creating negative experiences for tourists.…”

The Role of UNESCO Cultural Heritage and Cultural Sector in Tourism Development: The Case of EU Countries

“…In addition, culture is mostly perceived as the opportunity to brand unique tourism products in a destination, in order to attract higher levels of tourism demand. The studies that empirically investigate the relationship between tourism and culture focus mostly on a single country or site-specific cases, and consider few perspectives of the cultural sector (e.g., [12][13][14][15]), with different research aims and different empirical strategies applied [16]. Most empirical studies focus on cultural heritage as an attractive determinant of tourism demand, presented primarily by the number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) (e.g., [16]).…”