Zvonimir Kuliš (p), Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu, Blanka Šimundić, Bart Neuts

Ossi Nurmi

Tourism as a global sector is vulnerable to various external shocks like economic crises, natural disasters, and pandemics. This was highly evidenced in the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism arrivals, overnights and receipts. Resilience has become a major goal and key process to overcome the challenges imposed by the pandemic, while the importance of building resilience across the tourism sector has emerged as important goal. The primary aim of this paper is to identify factors influencing tourism resilience, especially during resistance and recovery phases, and to enhance understanding of these factors for effective tourism policy design. The study examines 242 EU NUTS-2 regions. The tourism resilience indicator includes resistance, measured by changes in overnight stays in 2020, and recovery, assessed by changes in 2021 and 2022 compared to 2019. The study categorizes independent variables into three groups: demand-derived indicators (like tourist intensity and tourism density), supply-derived indicators (including tourism capacity and presence of cultural/natural heritage sites), and control variables (like GDP, innovation, and governance).
Key findings indicate that regions which exhibit longer average stays and higher domestic tourism rates are more resistant to shocks, while those reliant on international tourism show lower resistance. In the recovery phase, regions with significant international tourism recover quicker. Furthermore, factors such as tourism employment, presence of UNESCO sites, and protected land areas have varied impacts on resilience in different phases. Overall, the study underscores that determinants of tourism resilience vary between phases and that regional tourism resilience positively influences neighboring areas. The study provides insight to forward-looking approach needed to drive tourism and regional resilience.

Ella Oksa, Ossi Nurmi (p)

Neven Ivandic

Tourism is a significant sector of the economy in Finland, generating about 2.7% of the gross domestic product in 2019 and employing about 5.8% of the workforce before the pandemic. Understanding the economic impacts of tourism is essential for supporting the industry and political decision-making.

This paper provides a case study on a new border survey for foreign travellers in Finland. Visit Finland, the national tourism promoting organization, launched the survey in March 2023 to collect data on the trips, expenditure, and characteristics of foreign visitors in Finland. The objective of the border survey is to provide reliable and comprehensive information about the volume, economic significance, regional structure and characteristics of inbound tourism in Finland to support the industry and political decision-making. The information is needed to allow for the better targeting of tourism marketing, for the development of tourism services and the preparation and evaluation of strategies. The information is utilized by regional tourism organizations, tourism companies, Visit Finland, Statistics Finland, municipalities and ministries.

The survey provides basic information on the demographic characteristics of foreign travellers, their expenditures related to the trip, timing and duration of trips, destinations within Finland, purpose of the trip, types of accommodation and other travel characteristics.

The survey uses various selection criteria and methods to form the sample from the population that is travellers who leave Finland by flight or ferry. The survey collects data from passengers through interviews conducted prior to departure.

The results of the survey are published through Visit Finland’s Rudolf web service, where one table is updated every month and seven tables every quarter. The processed survey data set is available as open data in open data portal avoindata.fi. Additionally Visit Finland publishes a visual and interactive report based on the open data.

We present the methodological choices and feasibility of the chosen methods for different conditions. Furthermore, we discuss potential limitations as well as additional data sources for improving the survey results.

Anupama Unnikrishnan (p), Jonas Månsson, Amanda Stenström, Fredrik Junkka

Zvonimir Kuliš

The literature on productivity in the tourism sector approximate the tourism sector by a single sector that represents tourism. There are very few studies which assess the regional variation. This study tries to fill this gap in literature by analyzing the regional dimension to the productivity in tourism sector. The study highlights the importance of tourism for municipalities in Sweden by estimating the production function of the tourism sector. A total factor productivity index (TFP) for the tourism industry is created based on weighted data. The index based on weights considers that tourism is differently important for different municipalities. All the tourism companies in the tourism sector in one municipality is aggregated and a 'tourism company' is created for each municipality based on weighted value added, weighted number of employees and weighted gross investments. The results show that these tourism indicators do not predominantly compare with value added in tourism sectors which is indicative of the fact that tourism, on average, has little bearing on a region's economy.

Neven Ivandic (p), Zrinka Marusic

Anupama Unnikrishnan

Concept of usual environment is considered as crucial determinant for identifying tourism activities, particularly in the context of same-day visitors. Use of the criteria of ‘the crossing of administrative borders or the distance from the place of usual residence, the duration of the visit, the frequency of the visit, the purpose of visit’ (Regulation (EU) No 692/2011) creates numerous challenges in the assessment of the physical and monetary size of tourism, especially from the perspective of international harmonization. This is also indicated by the evolution of the concept, from a simple definition based on physical distance to a complex definition that integrates personal, cultural, and experiential factors.
The concept of usual environment is particularly complex in the context of nautical tourism. Unlike continental tourism, where geographical boundaries are clearer, the boundaries in nautical tourism are more fluid, making it difficult to define what constitutes a usual environment from an individual perspective. This issue is particularly evident in the segment of domestic same-day visitors, which is almost completely neglected in the literature. As the unique spatial and geographical characteristics of marine environment ask for a more thorough and precise approach to definition of usual environment, this paper attempts to fill this research gap.
Using the example of Croatia as a country where yachting accounts for a significant part of total inbound tourism expenditures, the paper looks at the criteria for the assessment of domestic nautical same-day trips from a demand perspective. The results of the survey on Tourist activity of population of Republic of Croatia which is carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 692/2011, show that this type of travel is almost not generated by inhabitants of coastal regions of Croatia. Since the survey is one of the key sources for the assessment of the size of domestic tourism, it implies that the number of same-day visitors is potentially underestimated. Therefore, qualitative research of residents – recreational boat owners was conducted in two coastal destinations. The research was focused on the purpose of same-day boat trips, their frequency, trip distance as well as the resident’s perception of the usual environment. Data was collected by in-depth interviews with five respondents at each destination. Content analysis resulted in guidelines for a more precise definition of the usual environment in the segment of the same day tour in nautical tourism, and thus improves the methodological framework for compilation of tourism satellite account.