Poema Souza (p), Andrea Melo

Tourism in Brazil has the potential for economic development due to the great number of attractions throughout the country such as beautiful beaches, exuberant nature, historical and cultural aspects, among others. The Brazilian Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, located in the Atlantic Ocean, has the tourism sector as its main economic activity and its main tourist attractions are related to its natural resources - ecotourism activities, adventure tourism, nautical tourism. Because it is an area of environmental protection, the flow of tourists in the archipelago is largely controlled by government authorities, however, it is the tourism sector that energizes the local economy. When we analyzed data from the Annual Social Information Report (RAIS) on the generation of formal jobs linked to tourism activities in the Archipelago, it was found that tourism in 2017 accounted for 72.95% of jobs in the region and between 2013 -2017, the average growth rate of these jobs was 12% per year, while in Brazil, this rate was only 0.67%. per year. In addition, we calculated the locational quotients of the tourism sector for Fernando de Noronha in 2017, this QL assumed a value of 17.71. That is, Fernando de Noronha presented a high level of specialization in the tourism sector equivalent to 17.71 times that observed in the Brazilian average. In addition to this analysis of the performance of occupations in the tourism sector, the present study aims to present the results of a survey that was carried out locally with residents of the region about the perception of these citizens about the importance of tourism in promoting well-being in Fernando de Noronha. Thus, with a total of 398 questionnaires applied and validated, more than 80% of the population claimed to be satisfied or very satisfied with existing job opportunities and recognize the importance of tourism in creating such jobs. They also responded, for the most part, that tourism promotes skills in the workforce and values the archipelago's environmental assets. In this context, it was verified that 71.47% of the respondents declared themselves satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of life in Fernando de Noronha, while only 11.36% were dissatisfied in some way. Therefore, we concluded that tourism is an important tool to promote economic well-being in Fernando de Noronha and that even in the face of a Brazilian economic crisis, tourism activities presented strong economic growth in the archipelago between 2013 and 2017.

Marly Patandianan (p), Hiroyuki Shibusawa

Kyushu Region is a third largest island in Japan, located southwest of the main island Honshu. Kyushu offers many tourism destinations: hot springs, fascinating history, fresh culinary, natural beauty, and welcoming friendly local people. Many tourists have been visiting there and generate income for the Kyushu area. Similar to other regions in Japan, Kyushu is also known to be prone to a disaster. A strong earthquake disaster in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, Kyushu Region occurred in April, 2016. Those areas were worst affected, even some tourist attractions around Kumamoto and Oita remain closed. Furthermore, the cancellation of lodging from the number of tourists both domestic and inbound gave growth to a significant impact on the tourism industry. In this paper, a methodology to evaluate the effects of earthquake disaster on tourism consumption in Kumamoto and Oita prefecture will be developed. The input-output table of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures in 2011 will be used to estimate the Inter-regional input-output (IRIO) table. In addition, the tourism final demand also will be estimated. The IRIO table of municipalities in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures consists of 36 sectors and 18 regions including the prefecture border areas of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, with the whole country and the world treated as an exogenous sector (for imports and export). The IRIO table will be constructed to calculate the spillover effects on the economic damage between cities and towns in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures before and after the earthquake disaster. Then, the gravity model will be estimated using data from IRIO table to adjust them through repetitive calculations until they corresponded. Hereafter, some numerical simulations will be conducted.

Marina Morales Catalán (p), Miriam Marcén Pérez

In this paper, we analyze the role of culture in determining whether, or not, an individual is a homeowner. We use data on first-generation immigrants who arrived in the United States under six years old. Following the epidemiological approach, those early-arrival immigrants grew up under the same US laws, markets, and institutions, so any dissimilarity in the proportion of homeowners by country of origin may be interpreted as a consequence of cultural differences. Our estimates indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the cultural proxy, that is, the proportion of individuals who are homeowners by country of origin, and the immigrants’ choice of home-ownership. Results are maintained after controlling for home-country observable and unobservable characteristics, and are consistent in several subsamples. Neither the differences in the formation of couples (same or different origin) nor the existence (or not) of mortgage financing appear to be driving our findings. Additionally, we present evidence of different mechanisms of transmission of culture (horizontal transmission, respect for elders, and gender roles), which reinforces our results on the cultural effect. (See full paper)

Henri L. F. de Groot (p), Elisa Panzera (p)

Both national and international public institutions acknowledge that cultural heritage plays an important role in boosting tourism flows towards countries. Empirically testing the influence of cultural heritage on tourism attractiveness and assessing its quantitative importance represents a relevant topic in the economic scientific literature and can provide important input for, for example, cost-benefit analyses. Even though a considerable body of literature has been published in the field, it is hard to find consensus on the outcomes. Since tourism is considered by the literature as either a form of trade or a special type of migration, gravity or spatial interaction models have been applied extensively to tourism flows. The present article presents a meta-analysis on existing primary studies that implement gravity or spatial interaction models on tourism flows worldwide. The selected articles include a cultural heritage measure as explanatory variable. Because of the heterogeneity of the adopted measures of cultural heritage, the main focus of the article is on significance and sign of the cultural heritage coefficient rather than on the elasticity. For that purpose, an ordered probit estimation technique is implemented. A meta-analysis on this topic is relevant to increase the awareness on the determinants of inconsistent results throughout different studies. The sample size, number of analyzed countries, time span, the period that is considered, disaggregation level, econometric estimation technique, stage of development of the countries, and inclusion of specific explanatory variables are among the investigated determinants of differences across studies.