Natasa Vaidianu (p), Priscila Lopes, Petruta Teampau, Florin Tatui, Andrei Schvab

Mauro Ferrante

The Danube Delta was declared a biosphere reserve in 1993 and the inhabitants of this place found themselves living in a protected area. Regulations and restrictions were imposed and transformations regarding tourism, investments, economic opportunities, ecological limitations appeared. The regulations were perceived by locals as very restrictive and they felt more and more estranged in their places and tourism activity became more and more important as a seasonal source of income. Increasing tourism has attracted more investors from outside of the local communities and has deepened the social inequalities, changing local architecture and improving hosting conditions, building new houses or installing AC. From this perspective, we explore the perception on ecotourism and the protected area label by applying interviews and questionnaires with stakeholders and local communities and how to ensure no one is left behind. Encompassing activities related to protected areas on land or sea, the sustainable (blue) tourism is becoming a central concept for all states, in the EU and worldwide. However, its continuous development has already led to overexploitation, unsustainable practices, and overcrowded spaces and conflicts have emerged among users competing for space.

Luís Silva, José Cadima Ribeiro (p), Francisco Carballo-Cruz

Natasa Vaidianu

Historically, Portuguese protected areas (PAs) have been operating under top-down governance, often neglecting local communities. In 2019, the Portuguese government established a new governance model for PAs, based on co-management. The new co-management approach emphasizes collaborative and participatory governance and positions sustainable tourism as a catalyst for territorial revitalization and local development. However, local communities’ attitudes and perceptions regarding tourism in these areas remain largely uncharted. This study focuses on the Alvão Natural Park (PNAL), a small rural and mountainous Portuguese PA, which is currently in the early stages of co-management implementation. Our goal was to investigate local residents' perceptions of tourism's impacts and identify potential divergence among resident groups and their level of support for tourism development. These insights are pivotal because the active engagement of local communities is a key element for sustainable tourism development and the successful implementation of co-management. The study employed a self-administered survey, garnering responses from 250 PNAL residents representing over half of the park's population. Factor analysis identified four primary perceptual dimensions and cluster analysis classified residents into three distinct groups based on their tourism perceptions. While most PNAL residents express support for tourism development, there is a resounding call for new policies to revert the legacy of top-down governance. This research provides essential insights for shaping effective tourism policies, planning and development strategies, and ensuring the active involvement of local communities in co-management and sustainable development efforts within the PNAL. Moreover, this study demonstrates the applicability of this research approach in the context of evolving governance models with the potential for adaptation to other PAs across Portugal and other countries undergoing similar governance transitions.

Oliver Fritz (p), Nikolaus Bayerl, Gerhard Streicher

José Ribeiro

The economic contribution of tourism is of great interest to policy makers. For this reason, tourism satellite accounts (TSA) have been established in many countries. These accounts extract the tourism relevant part of all industries to measure tourism induced direct valued added and employment. Even though indirect effects through linkages to upstream industries are not part of TSA’s based on the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recommendations, many researchers apply those data to model such effects, using input-output tables.
Such tables, usually published by national statistical offices, are based on the system of national accounts (e.g. ESA, the European system of national accounts) which deviate from the TSA conventions with respect to tourism in several ways. Business travel expenditures by domestic firms, for example, are included in the domestic use matrix (as part of the whole make-use system) while they are part of the total tourism expenditures of the TSA. If those expenditures are used as input to estimate direct and indirect effects via an input-output model, an estimation bias arises.
In this paper, the tourism related differences between the European system of national accounts and the TSA are described and the estimation bias resulting from combining TSA expenditure data and input-output tables is quantified based on Austrian data. Furthermore, suggestions on how to avoid this bias are made. For this purpose, the make-use tables need to be adapted.

Mauro Ferrante (p), Sandra Navarro-Ruiz, Ana B. Casado-Díaz, Salvador Anton-Clavé

Oliver Fritz

Cruise tourism has emerged as an important area of study in urban destinations, prompting researchers to investigate the mobility patterns of cruise visitors. Initially, research in this area relied on observational techniques and time-space budgets. However, the advent of GPS tracking devices has revolutionised data collection methods, allowing researchers to gather detailed spatio-temporal information on human movements. This technological advance has opened up new avenues for social and economic research, particularly in the field of tourism.
The evolution of GPS technology, from its inception in travel surveys in the late 1990s to its rapid development over the past decade, has had a significant impact on research methodologies in tourism studies. Shoval and Ahas (2016) provide a comprehensive overview of this evolving field, highlighting the transition from conventional survey methods to GPS-based data collection. Prior to GPS technology, traditional travel surveys posed challenges to respondents, requiring them to recall detailed travel information.
Recent studies have used GPS technologies to analyse the spatial behaviour of cruise visitors in different destinations such as Palermo, Valencia and Tarragona. These studies share a common methodological framework, focusing on cruise visitors as the primary unit of analysis and using GPS technology to capture their mobility patterns.
The current study aims to combine evidence from three Mediterranean destinations - Palermo, Valencia and Tarragona - to compare and contrast cruise passenger behaviour. Methodologically, the study aims to establish a robust resampling method to achieve similar sample distributions across destinations. Empirically, the study aims to improve the understanding of the spatio-temporal mobility patterns of cruise passengers and to identify the factors influencing these patterns in different destinations.
Key mobility variables examined in the study include total trip duration, length, maximum distance from port, number of stops, average stop duration and expenditure stratified by destination. In addition, the study considers socio-demographic characteristics, type of company trip and previous visits to the destination as pre-treatment covariates to be balanced.
Preliminary results suggest that the destination visited has a significant impact on the behaviour and spending patterns of cruise passengers. These findings have practical implications for destination management, particularly in the development of cruise tourism destinations and ports of call, by informing decisions regarding visitor flows and concentration. Overall, the study contributes to the advancement of knowledge in cruise tourism research and informs strategies for destination management and planning.