Measuring tourism success: how European National Tourism Organisations are shifting the paradigm

PurposeThe paper analyses the dramatic global slowdown of tourism caused by the pandemic and how it has provided an exceptional opportunity for the tourism sector to reassess both its priorities and practices, especially in relation to our planet and society.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides an analysis of the European Travel Commission's position regarding the development of a sustainable tourism ecosystem and the definition of new metrics to measure this transition, thus allowing European National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) to share knowledge and learn from each other.FindingsNTOs across Europe are at different stages in their journey towards a sustainable tourism development model. Some destinations are still focussing on attracting more travellers from international markets while others at a more mature stage, are switching their work towards the management of tourism flows. These latter examples support the approach that developing a tourism strategy should start with the needs of the destination, and the local people should be directly and fully involved in the tourism strategy. Initiatives such as this can support tourism decision-making based on data and firm evidence and help to address doubts and common misunderstandings around how residents feel.Originality/valueThis paper highlights how the European Travel Commission, together with its members, are working towards a new world benchmark for responsible, sustainable and innovative tourism in response to exponential growth of demand, the reality of the ecological transition and the emergence of a new digital era.

STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL TOURIST UKRAINE

Development of Ukraine as an abstractive destination of tourism flows is modern and urgent task. The implementation of priority involves a number of strategic of development of local tourism. The importance of international tourism as a type of business that has a multiplier effect on all sectors of the economy is determined. The main factors influencing the development of the tourism industry are analyze. Two periods of tourism development of the XXI century have been established: pre-covid (pre-pandemic) and post- covid (and post-pandemic). The peculiarities of the functioning of the world tourism sector in the reference period are clarify, indicating all the factors influencing the tourism sector. The tourism sector in world and domestic practice attracts significant investment funds that solve a number of problems of unemployment, income growth, replenishment of the revenue side of the budget. The available national tourist resources make it possible to consider Ukraine as an important tourist destination in Europe and to state its strong competitive potential. However, the available UNWTO statistics are striking for the mismatch between economic revenues from tourism and the volume of tourism flow. This suggests that the tourism potential of Ukraine is not fully disclosed, indicative of the weight of the tourism sector of Ukraine at 2% of GDP. It should be noted that until 2013 y. inclusive, the entry rate of foreigners and stateless persons in Ukraine had a clear upward trend, and since 2014-2015 years, it has decreased by 1.9 times. This is partly due to the end of Euro 2012 y. football and the events of the Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan) and the beginning of the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine, which led to the loss of territories. In 2016-2018 years, there is a growing trend in the segment of entry of foreigners and stateless persons. In 2019 y, the signs of the COVID-19 pandemic are noticeable, and there is a decrease in this indicator of tourist flows. Thus, if we briefly analyze the state of international tourism in Ukraine, we can conclude that it has stable growth rates in terms of travel abroad, and a decrease since 2014 in terms of entry. There are some restrictive requirements for the growth of inbound and domestic tourism flows. As already mentioned, this is primarily due to improper development of transport infrastructure and insufficient service, short holiday season, high transport tariffs and inflated prices for domestic services and hotels. Thus, the success of the country and its regions depends on the global environment in which drastic changes are possible only with a sharp external factor of natural or anthropogenic nature. The presence of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine creates additional problems. Creating new business models of tourism in which all these prerequisites are laid down is a strategic task of the country. The article point out the need for active promotion of domestic tourism, the structuring of image components of tourist areas, the expansion of promising kinds of tourist services and improving their and urban tourism. Key words. strategic directions, international tourism, Ukraine.

A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN TOURISM FLOWS

As the growing research interest and discussion on social network analysis associated with tourism flows, this paper reviewed 31 studies focused on tourism flows with social network analysis in the past ten years. To ensure the accuracy of the literature review, a systematic quantitative literature review with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), together with descriptive and content analyses, was used to synthesise these past studies. With that, this review aims to (1) identify the overall research trends of social network analysis in tourism flows studies, (2) types and methods of data collection used, as well as (3) future research opportunities. The review findings present an interesting result with the past studies mostly focusing on examining tourist movement, tourism destination management, and tourist behavioural patterns. Furthermore, this review also provides significant findings on emerging data collection methods, like big data, in tourism research. To sum up, this paper offers an insight into social network analysis in tourism flows, primarily on the state of knowledge, methodological understanding, and future research gaps.

MODELLING FACTORS AFFECTING RELIGIOUS TOURISM FLOWS TO SAUDI ARABIA

Religious tourism demand is one of the major contributors to Saudi Arabia economy and considered to play an important role in the “Vision 2030”, which seeks to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy reliance on oil revenues. As the country has undergone structural changes in international tourism and removed travel restrictions in the past few years, there is a need to identify the determinant factors that influence international tourists to plan and manage their trips. Therefore, this current study aims to investigate the effects of economic and noneconomic factors on international tourist flows by using A panel data gravity model for the period 2000-2019. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and the Panel Regression technique. The findings of the regression show that the traditional gravity variables are important to explain Saudi Arabia’s religious tourism demand. The study also has found that habit persistence, the Pandemic Index, GDP per capita of Saudi and the original countries, human rights and investments in the tourist sector have a significant and positive impact on religious tourism demand. While political risks, transport costs, and tourism price have a statistically significant and negative effect on religious tourists’ arrivals. This study will contribute largely to the tourism demand literature by introducing country characteristics factors which include human rights issues as security proxies, pandemics, and quality of life and by measuring the impact of these variables in tourism demand in the context of an oil-based economy that under the transition to a diversified economy with a new vision. The findings of this study may assist in the development of Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector and economic development by providing knowledge to policymakers, investors, and other tourism stakeholders.

Analysis of the impact of tourism flows on environmental degradation. Case study: Municipality of Naxos & Small Cyclades, Greece

From the 19th century until nowadays, tourism is an enormously evolving activity. In recent years, tourism has become the main economic activity in Greece that boosts the local economy of the country. The present study deals with the environmental impacts of tourism. The aim is to delve the correlation between tourism flows and environmental degradation, especially in the Municipality of Naxos & Small Cyclades in Greece which in recent years has become an attractive tourist destination. For the purpose of the study, appropriate monthly data on environmental degradation are collected and are correlated with monthly flows of tourism during the last years for the Municipality of Naxos & Small Cyclades. The collected data refer to the number of visitors (by plane and ship), their overnight stays in tourist accommodations, waste production, energy consumption, water consumption and quality of sea water for swimming. According to results, during the period of increased tourism flows in the Municipality of Naxos & Small Cyclades (almost triple the permanent population of the Municipality), indices of burden such as energy consumption and production, water consumption and amount of waste generated, are increasing. Also, the quality of sea water for swimming is marginally burdened.

The Relationship between CO2 Emissions, Air Pollution, and Tourism Flows in China: A Panel Data Analysis of Chinese Provinces

This study quantitatively investigated the relationship between climate change (proxied by CO2 emissions), air pollution (proxied by PM2.5 concentration levels and PM10 and SO2 emissions), and tourism flows (proxied by inbound and domestic tourist arrivals) using panel data for 30 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2017. The results demonstrate a long-term equilibrium relationship between CO2 emissions, air pollution variables, and tourism flows (including the number of inbound and domestic tourists). The panel data model results show that CO2 emissions have an opposite effect on inbound and domestic tourist arrivals, while domestic and inbound tourists positively affect CO2 emissions. PM2.5 level and PM10 and SO2 emissions all have a negative effect on the number of tourists. There is bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and domestic tourist arrivals, which means CO2 emissions and domestic tourist arrivals have a two-way effect. A one-way causality running from PM2.5 to inbound tourist arrivals and SO2 emissions to domestic tourist arrivals was found. Moreover, we also found bidirectional causality between PM10 and inbound tourist arrivals and PM10 and domestic tourist arrivals. Variance decomposition function results suggest that PM10 and SO2 emissions have stronger effects on inbound tourist arrivals in the long term, while CO2 emissions and PM10 have stronger power in explaining innovations in domestic tourist arrivals. The movements in the domestic tourist arrivals do significantly affect CO2 emissions in the long run. The study provides theoretical implications and guidance for achieving a healthy and sustainable tourism industry.

GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF FOREIGN TOURIST FLOWS FORMATION IN UKRAINE: STATE AND FORMATION PROBLEMS

This study is devoted to the analysis of international tourism flows directed into Ukraine. Problem Statement and Purpose. Diagnostics of tourism flows according to regions of the world was carried out and the tendency of the increasing role of tourism both locally and internationally was noticed. The attractiveness of Ukraine for the tourism regions of the world was analyzed in detail by assessing tourist arrivals through the prism of the leading countries selection in each of them. This allows us to analyse the place of Ukraine in the tourism flows of these territories. Special attention is paid to the flow of tourists within the country and the analysis of the most attractive areas for foreign tourists in terms of regional territories. The aim of the study is a modernized vision of the problem of tourism flows within one of the countries of the Central and Eastern European tourism subregion (according to the UNWTO methodology). The study identified how the geography of tourist origin affects these processes in a particular country (on the example of Ukraine). Due to such research, it is possible to assess changes in the economic, social and political systems, as well as the culture of the country in general and its regions in particular. In addition, it is possible to assess the impact on the population around the world. Data & Methods. The study of international tourism flows is based on the recommendations of the UNWTO, as well as modern scientific research of national and foreign European researchers. The following research methods were used in the research process: analytical, descriptive, comparative, statistical. Results. The results of the previous empirical study confirmed that different social groups have their own specific patterns of tourism activity. It also showed what groups responded the most to globalization and the possible consequences it may have for tourism activities. The growing mobility of the population and the consequences of the outbound tourism development are some of the main consequences of globalization. The study showed that the geography of interest in Ukraine by foreign tourists is expanding. To some extent, this can be justified by the war, which significantly reoriented the composition and direction of international tourism flows in Ukraine.

Breaking Brands: New Boundaries in Rural Destinations

Tourism destinations are generally delimited and branded based on administrative boundaries, which act as artificial barriers that may reduce the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Increasingly, literature is taking a demand perspective (i.e., tourist spatial behaviour) when identifying and promoting destinations. This perspective can help to promote destinations more efficiently, particularly in rural areas, where most tourism flows depend on private vehicle and which do not take into account administrative boundaries. These flows are therefore highly conditioned by the geography of the area, hosting capacity and the cumulative effect of attractions. This research centres on brand creation from a tourist perspective, particularly how tourists consume a destination. Els Ports (Spain), a rural mountain area divided into multiple administrative divisions, each marketing its own brand, is taken as a case study. Recently, destination managers have seen the opportunity for regional cooperation and taken steps to cross traditional boundaries to market the area better. This study uses GIS techniques to compare tourist travel patterns with brand boundaries and new cooperative initiatives. The findings provide material for discussion on the branding strategy of Els Ports and the need to rebrand rural tourism destinations into functional tourism areas.