Alishan Karimov, Petra Gyurácz-Németh, Dirk-jan Kamann (p)

Vinko Mustra

This study measures the economic impact of hotels and similar establishments on the overall economy of the Hungarian Veszprém District. It is considered to be an individual part of the total hospitality sector. The Local Multiplier is utilized in the study from three perspectives: direct, indirect and induced effects. Both secondary public data as well as primary data sources, merely questionnaires, were used to collect data. The resulting score for the induced impact (LM3) is 1.96, meaning that for every forint brought into the economy of the district of Veszprem by the hotels and similar establishments, another extra forint is generated. The study also finds that revenues of the Veszprem district as share of the national figures have shrunk significantly and development has stagnated in absolute terms over the past four years.

Paula Remoaldo (p), Edoardo Duque, José Cadima Ribeiro, Vítor Ribeiro, Sandro Ferreira, Cátia Faria

Dirk-jan Kamann

Many studies have been published during the last decades about the Saint James Way (a millenary route) and several on the Portuguese`s St. James Way. Nevertheless, in its promotion, little was investigated on its senses potential. Our paper focuses on the way the Portuguese`s St. James Way can impact the pilgrim's five senses in its path between Maia and Valença. It aims to capture the association between landscape and the human senses (vision, smell, sound, taste, and touch) when performing a pilgrimage tour, and the main equipment gaps identified along the way that can limit the pilgrims` well-being. A qualitative approach was undertaken between 2020 and 2021, by using primary sources. A grid of 22 variables was built for this purpose. It included the main characteristics of the landscape and, in this paper, the analysis will be centred on 9 variables [e.g., georeferencing of the main points of the route; type of land use; type of landscape along the route; type of pavement; type of noise; type of smell; places for stopping and resting; places more suitable for performing meditation; and type of existing hazards, namely, absence of sidewalks and crosswalks].
The main results achieved revealed that the Portuguese`s St. James Way is diverse in its features and can be attractive to potential pilgrims. The green color associated with natural environments is predominant, being interrupted by urban and artificialized areas. Vision is the most intense sense to be experienced, while the smell is the less activated one. Several equipment gaps have been identified, such as the lack of points of potable water. The inventorying of these gaps can be useful for driving policy actions by local and regional actors involved in the planning and management of the route.

Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu (p), Gabriela Carmen Pascariu, Cristina Lupu, Ioana Bejenaru

Paula Remoaldo

During the last decades smart city initiatives increased both in number and financial investments. This increase was followed by a rapid diversification of their strategic fields, from the initial focus on energy consumption, transportation, and digital sensors towards more scattered areas like tourism, communication, social media, citizen participation. The tourism dimension of smart initiatives encompassed various topics relating to visitors’ experience, transformation of tourism products, virtual and augmented reality, or guiding apps. However, there is an ardent ongoing debate regarding the palpable effect of smart initiatives upon tourism performance of urban destinations. Our paper tries to contribute to this debate with concrete evidence by taking into account the tourism resilience of cities.
For our research we first selected the top 50 Romanian cities in terms of tourism digital footprint. The digital footprint was calculated based on their presence on websites of booking, review, eWOM, and similar tourism-related platforms. Second, we compared their digital footprint with the smart city initiatives, especially tourism-related smart initiatives, the value of smart initiatives, tourist arrivals, lodging units, and tourism development potential, as assessed by national authorities. The results suggest a limited, however visible effect of smart city initiatives upon the tourism resilience and upon digital of Romanian urban areas. The study addresses a series of recommendations for policy-makers regarding the introduction of smart initiatives in local and regional tourism strategies.

Vinko Mustra (p), Blanka Škrabić Perić, Smiljana Pivčević

Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu

The paper explores the role of tourism demand and cultural World Heritage Sites on the economic resilience of the regions of European Union countries in 2008–2016. The results pinpoint to the importance of cultural World Heritage Sites in keeping the regional economic resilience. In contrast, the results on tourism demand are not unambiguous – domestic tourist arrivals play a significantly positive role while the inbound tourist arrivals negatively affect regional economic resilience. However, culture tourism, defined as the joint effect of tourism and cultural World Heritage Sites, decreases the negative effect of inbound tourism, pinpointing that the cultural sites play an essential role in attracting the inbound tourists in the less prosperous periods.