Financial Crisis and Tourism Activity

Author(s):  
Nikolaos Pappas ◽  
Alexandros Apostolakis

The current recession has hit hard the European countries, and also affected tourism activity throughout the continent. Considering that several European countries (especially the Mediterranean ones) are heavily dependent upon tourism activity, the recent financial crisis has considerably affected their economy. This effect is strengthened with the parallel adoption of austerity measures aiming at economic recovery and exit from the recession. Despite the substantial magnitude and severity of this crisis, little is known about tourists' reactions in coping in with the recessionary effects. Contrary to the established practice of adopting a macroeconomic perspective in the examination of the impact of financial crises on tourism activity, this book chapter follows recent recommendations in the literature such as Brooner and de Hoog (2012) Kaytaz and Gul (2014) to examine the particular adverse effects of the current financial/economic crisis on individual behaviour and demand patterns. Thus, the research utilises a survey questionnaire to British tourists examining the effect of the current recession on travel and consumption patterns. Socio-demographically, the results reveal that the current recession appears to have a significant effect on gender, since male tourism expenditure is affected more than female one. Moreover, the uncertainty associated with income and employment levels during recession has a particularly strong effect on tourism expenditure. More specifically, uncertainty associated with both income and employment levels during the financial crisis has a negative and statistically significant effect on tourism expenditure. On the other hand, younger and middle aged tourists seem to be fairly unaffected by the financial crisis, as compared to more mature and senior tourists. In addition, the findings indicate that future expectations regarding income levels have no influence on current tourism expenditure patterns. Overall, those respondents that were unsure about the effect of the financial crisis on their current tourism expenditure patterns were also more likely to exhibit ambivalence about the future. The findings provide an interesting insight to tourism decision makers since they illustrate evidence regarding the turning points of demand, especially during periods of economic downturn.

Author(s):  
Nikolaos Pappas ◽  
Alexandros Apostolakis

The current recession has hit hard the European countries, and also affected tourism activity throughout the continent. Considering that several European countries (especially the Mediterranean ones) are heavily dependent upon tourism activity, the recent financial crisis has considerably affected their economy. This effect is strengthened with the parallel adoption of austerity measures aiming at economic recovery and exit from the recession. Despite the substantial magnitude and severity of this crisis, little is known about tourists' reactions in coping in with the recessionary effects. Contrary to the established practice of adopting a macroeconomic perspective in the examination of the impact of financial crises on tourism activity, this book chapter follows recent recommendations in the literature such as Brooner and de Hoog (2012) Kaytaz and Gul (2014) to examine the particular adverse effects of the current financial/economic crisis on individual behaviour and demand patterns. Thus, the research utilises a survey questionnaire to British tourists examining the effect of the current recession on travel and consumption patterns. Socio-demographically, the results reveal that the current recession appears to have a significant effect on gender, since male tourism expenditure is affected more than female one. Moreover, the uncertainty associated with income and employment levels during recession has a particularly strong effect on tourism expenditure. More specifically, uncertainty associated with both income and employment levels during the financial crisis has a negative and statistically significant effect on tourism expenditure. On the other hand, younger and middle aged tourists seem to be fairly unaffected by the financial crisis, as compared to more mature and senior tourists. In addition, the findings indicate that future expectations regarding income levels have no influence on current tourism expenditure patterns. Overall, those respondents that were unsure about the effect of the financial crisis on their current tourism expenditure patterns were also more likely to exhibit ambivalence about the future. The findings provide an interesting insight to tourism decision makers since they illustrate evidence regarding the turning points of demand, especially during periods of economic downturn.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Dariusz Prokopowicz

The recent financial crisis in 2008 has made a significant contribution to the growing importance of the analysis of processes of credit risk management and forced to take measures to improve the process. Sources of the financial crisis is now largely associated with the activities of mainly US investment banks that sold derivatives on the basis of income from high-risk mortgages. Increased risk recorded in the banking business, as a rule, also a derivative of the economic downturn in the sectors of bank customers, including non-financial business entities. In such a situation, banks are limited to provide customers with a more risky loan pro-active financial products. Given the global nature of financial markets and the importance of investment banking in the financial systems and the necessary actions to improve the tools for identifying, quantifying and managing banking risks, especially credit and lending institutions to protect themselves from potential sources of risk. The present analysis showed that the anti-crisis measures are mainly focused on the introduction of additional restrictions in the provision of financial products that may not be enough and may even be harmful, helping to reduce the economic growth of individual countries. Measures are also needed to strengthen supervisory agencies in the financial systems, including transnational supervision.


Author(s):  
Kathy Estes

<p><em>Many U.S. banks failed or performed poorly during the recent financial crisis.  Although the costliest failures were large institutions, the majority of failures were community banks (less than $1 billion in total assets).  Community banks, which are considered instrumental in small business lending and employment growth, face different risks and challenges than their larger counterparts, including a lack of economies of scale and scope and exclusion from “too-big-to-fail” status.  These challenges, coupled with the recent failures, motivate research into potential strategies managers can use to improve performance.  This study examined the relationship between three potential diversification strategies and community bank risk-adjusted performance from 2007 to 2011.  Understanding these relationships could improve management’s decision-making, allowing them to choose risk-mitigating strategies during a severe economic downturn.  Herfindahl-Hirschman Indexes (HHIs) were calculated as proxies for geographic, activity, and asset diversification.  Multiple regression models for each of the five years were used to calculate the impact of diversification variables on risk-adjusted ROA.  The results show that diversification in all areas is directly related to performance; however, only the asset diversification relationship is significant.  To the extent possible for community banks, diversification may improve risk-adjusted performance.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Kathy Estes

Many U.S. banks failed or performed poorly during the recent financial crisis.  Although the costliest failures were large institutions, the majority of failures were community banks (less than $1 billion in total assets).  Community banks, which are considered instrumental in small business lending and employment growth, face different risks and challenges than their larger counterparts, including a lack of economies of scale and scope and exclusion from “too-big-to-fail” status.  These challenges, coupled with the recent failures, motivate research into potential strategies managers can use to improve performance.  This study examined the relationship between three potential diversification strategies and community bank risk-adjusted performance from 2007 to 2011.  Understanding these relationships could improve management’s decision-making, allowing them to choose risk-mitigating strategies during a severe economic downturn.  Herfindahl-Hirschman Indexes (HHIs) were calculated as proxies for geographic, activity, and asset diversification.  Multiple regression models for each of the five years were used to calculate the impact of diversification variables on risk-adjusted ROA.  The results show that diversification in all areas is directly related to performance; however, only the asset diversification relationship is significant.  To the extent possible for community banks, diversification may improve risk-adjusted performance.


At a time when Europe is in the grip of a new crisis, it is especially useful to look back at the experiences of the European welfare states’ constitutions during the most recent financial crisis. This book provides unique insights by analysing social protection reforms undertaken in nine European countries, from both a social law and a constitutional law perspective. It highlights the mixture of short-term cuts in benefits and of structural changes in social protection schemes. The crisis might have helped to further the partial and temporary implementation of reforms, but it certainly cannot spare us from the debates and political compromises that are unavoidable in order to reform social protection thoughtfully and thoroughly. Moreover, the book records the outcome of relevant constitutional review proceedings and thereby demonstrates that, even if corrections remained restricted to relatively few cases, social rights matter. The financial crisis advanced their protection one step further, but left many questions open. One lesson is of paramount importance, also for helping us overcome the current pandemic crisis: we need a substantial and commonly accepted agreement in the Europe Union on how to balance the economy and social protection in the future.


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