The practicalities of a Learning Tourism Destination: a case study of the Ningaloo Coast

The complex and dynamic nature of tourism, and the need to address triple bottom line sustainability, has encouraged a search for adaptive tourism management approaches based on organisational learning. In this paper, the authors discuss a practical approach for the implementation of a Learning Tourism Destination (LTD), a new concept derived from the theory of learning organisations. Preliminary results from a case study undertaken at the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia are discussed. The conducted surveys indicate that the LTD forms a useful framework for fostering consensus building, dialogue and collective learning processes among stakeholders. The proposed approach has the potential to improve decision‐making within the concept of sustainable tourism development by facilitating participative planning processes. The overall strategy of this paper is to explore the practicalities of the LTD implementation process, and to spark further conceptual and practical debate, based on the analysis of the Ningaloo case study. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The determinants of truck accidents

This paper examines the determinants of truck accidents in the United States using a time series data set covering the period 1970–2001. Along with other factors, the effect of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, which deregulated the trucking industry, is examined for its impact on truck accidents. In addition, the model accounts for the effect railroad freight mileage has on truck accidents. Empirically, alcohol consumption, the unemployment rate, and railroad activity were found to have significant effects on truck accidents while deregulation of the trucking industry did not have a statistically significant adverse effect on these accidents.     

NAFTA and Canada–US cross-border freight transportation

This paper explores the transportation related impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The specific area of concern is with the supply and demand for trucking services in the Canada–US cross-border market. The US represents the largest export market for Canada and in terms of the value of goods shipped, the trucking industry is the dominant mode of transport. On the supply side, changes in industry structure within this market and regulatory measures are reviewed. The changes in demand patterns involving the Province of Ontario are analyzed, employing origin-destination shipment data collected by Statistics Canada. Ontario is the industrial centre of Canada and the impacts of the NAFTA are expected to be greatest in this particular region. Understanding the consequences of this trade agreement are important for guiding future transportation related policies initiatives which affect the growing Canada–US cross-border market.     

Modeling fuel saving investments and fleet management in the trucking industry: The impact of shipment performance on GHG emissions

Much has been written about the potential of technologies to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of trucking, but much less on the determinants of these investments. The Trucking Sector Trip Segmentation Model (TSTS) predicts how firms make these investments in the context of operating heterogeneous truck fleets to service the spatially dispersed demand of shippers. This analysis suggests that improving the performance of trucking (speeding up shipments) could reduce significantly GHG emissions: investments in technologies are incentivized by fuel savings accruing sooner. This effect could be potentially large in the US as trucking firms often discount the future heavily.     

The capability of Motorways of the Sea of being competitive against road transport. The case of the Italian mainland and Sicily

The paper deals with a quantitative analysis on the competitiveness of intermodal transport, based on Motorways of the Sea (MoS), in comparison with all-road transport. This analysis is applied to MoS routes connecting the Italian mainland with Sicily. The study involves: a detailed intermodal network model which compares monetary costs and travel times from all relevant origins in the mainland to all relevant destinations in Sicily; and a survey carried out at some representative trucking firms operating to/from Sicily. The aim of the interviews has been: on one side to make a comparison between the theoretical and actual mode of transport and routes taken, and in case they are different, to understand the reasons of the discrepancy; on the other side to determine what are the main aspects taken into account by trucking companies in their modal choice, in order to understand how the competiveness of MoS against road transport can be improved. The results of the analysis show that the modal choice is affected by several elements: monetary costs and travel times; reliability of MoS routes; availability of MoS routes; MoS routes frequencies; but it resulted from the interviews that monetary costs and travel times are the most important factors considered by trucking companies in the modal and route choice. This study has also shown that an improvement of MoS routes on the Italian Adriatic side is necessary: actually, a strong reason for which in Italy MoS traffic is still a small percentage of road traffic is the low number of MoS routes currently in operation and their low frequency. This analysis could help decision makers, and maritime operators, to efficiently invest in the improvement of MoS routes. Moreover, this analysis, developed for an Italian case study, can be applied to other European and Mediterranean scenarios.     

Attributes driving the selection of trucking services and the quantification of the shipper’s willingness to pay

This paper investigates the selection of trucking services by shippers that require the movement of truck shipments. A set of pragmatic attributes are postulated to describe trucking services. They are used in a stated choice experiment that collects data and preferences from shippers. A mixed logit model is estimated in order to test the attributes and quantifying the shipper willingness to pay for them. The results are used to provide meaningful negotiation guidance for truck-related shippers and carriers, a significant contribution to literature in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. A numerical example illustrates the use of the model.     

Development and analysis of alternative dispatching methods in truckload trucking

In this paper, the authors discuss industry–university collaborative research aimed at improving the performance of truckload trucking operations for a major North American carrier through the development of alternative dispatching methods. The research detailed in this paper develops regularly scheduled delivery capacity in the form of delivery lanes, hubs and zones which regularize driver tours while providing performance benefits for the carrier. The impact of the alternative methods developed are studied through extensive experimentation using discrete event simulation and actual demand data provided by the industrial partner.     

Traffic congestion and trucking managers’ use of automated routing and scheduling

Using data from a 2001 survey of managers of 700 trucking companies operating in California, we tested competing hypotheses about the relationship between managers’ perceptions of the impact of traffic congestion on their operations and their companies’ adoption of routing and scheduling (R/S) software. Demand for R/S software was found to be influenced directly by the need to re-route drivers, and indirectly by the need, generated by customers’ schedules, to operate during congested periods. We were also able to identify which types of trucking companies are most affected by congestion and which types are more likely to adopt such software.     

An assessment of the free and secure trade (FAST) program along the Canada–US border

Several new programs were introduced under the Smart Border Action Plan of 2001 to ensure both secure and efficient trade across the Canada–US border. This article evaluates just how well one of the programs, Free and Secure Trade (FAST), has succeeded in expediting shipments and reducing delays at the border. The results of this study indicate that the FAST program has reduced the average border wait time at four of the five busiest crossing ports. However, the benefits associated with the FAST program are unevenly distributed among the ports, determined by the ability to accommodate infrastructure improvements, and firms, with larger trucking companies and exporters reaping the benefits and small and medium-sized trucking firms and exporters burdened by costs and often unable to capitalize on the program’s benefits. Recommendations for program improvement include: greater regulatory cooperation between Canada and the US to reduce costly duplication and paperwork, and providing tax incentives or subsidies to small and medium-size firms as a means to increase the participation rate in the program.     

Istanbul Airport (IGA) and quest of best competitive strategy for air cargo carriers in new competition environment: A fuzzy multi-criteria approach

Our paper determines the best competitive strategy that can be implemented by existing and potential air cargo carriers in the Turkish Air Cargo Industry with the operationalization of Istanbul Airport (IGA) and reveals the competitiveness level of the industry for four bases. We look at the competitiveness levels by analyzing the competitive environment of the industry nationally and internationally both before and post IGA (estimated). We use fuzzy TOPSIS (FTOPSIS) based on the Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) to handle vagueness, which is inherent in the nature of new competition conditions integrating the framework of Porter's five forces analysis. In our study, we use the five forces as our main criteria (with a total of 19 sub-criteria) and the competitive strategies as our alternatives. Our results reveal that the cost-focused strategy is the best competitive strategy that can be implemented by existing and potential carriers in the industry. Another significant result underscores the fact that IGA increases the competitiveness level of the Turkish Air Cargo Industry both nationally and internationally to a fairly high level. Also, the threat of potential competitors is first among the five forces in the industry's new conditions. Our study fills the gap in the literature on the effects of major structural changes in an air cargo industry on the competition among carriers.     

Design and analysis of delivery ‘pipelines’ in truckload trucking

This paper examines a new dispatching alternative for the truckload trucking industry involving the use of delivery ‘pipelines’ with dense flow volumes. Drivers and loads are partitioned into two sets; those that utilize pipelines via a series of ‘dray’ moves and line-hauls, and the remaining set of random over-the-road (OTR) drivers that are dispatched by traditional methods. Alternative methods are presented to determine where delivery pipelines should be located and how they should be operated. The effects of the pipelines on the remaining OTR fleet are also examined. Results indicate that the new dispatching alternative is feasible.     

Measuring the performance of multimode bus transit: A mixed structure network DEA model

The aim of this paper is to propose a mixed structure network data envelopment analysis (MSNDEA) model which allows a representation of a parallel production serial connection of consumption processes in a unified framework and hence can be used to simultaneously estimate the production efficiency, service effectiveness and operational effectiveness of multimode transit firms. To do this, Taiwan’s bus transit system is selected for the empirical applications. The main advantages of the MSNDEA model are in contexts where internal linkage and shared inputs between activities can be considered in this model, and the model structure is more realistic than the conventional one.     

Aviation human factors: a framework for the new millennium

This paper presents a survey of the literature on human factors in airline safety and builds a conceptual framework for designing future safety studies. In our framework, factors are analyzed to determine their association with operational errors rather than accidents. Since operational errors occur with much greater frequency than accidents, our new approach allows for the analysis of the more complex relationships and interactions that occur among various factors. Results generated through the analysis of operational data can enhance the decision-making process and help reduce pilot-error accidents. We also include recommendations for how data should be collected and stored in order for researchers to more effectively analyze flight safety data.     

Time efficiency assessment of ship movements in maritime ports: A case study of two ports based on AIS data

Operational efficiency of a maritime port is an important issue for shipping lines and port authorities. It is desirable to move ships in and out of a maritime port as efficiently as possible. Automatic identification system (AIS) data recording the trajectory of ship movements allow us to assess the operational efficiency as ships move in and out of a port. This study proposes a time efficiency assessment framework that evaluates the amount of time each ship spends in the different areas within a port (i.e., berth, anchorage, and fairway) based on the space-time trajectories of ship movements derived from AIS data. According to the statistical distributions of time spent by different types of ship in each port area, the proposed framework can compare time efficiency across different zones within a port and between different ports. This study uses AIS data of four types of ships (i.e., container, cargo, tanker, and passenger ships) at two selected ports in China, Shanghai Yangshan Port and Xiamen Port, to demonstrate how the proposed approach can effectively assess and compare time efficiency levels of ship movements between the times entering and leaving the vessel traffic service (VTS) lines of a port. This study demonstrates the value of deriving space-time trajectories from AIS data based on the concepts of time geography to assess time efficiency levels of maritime ports and monitor their performance over time, which offer useful information to both shipping lines and port authorities for operations such as efficient scheduling and logistic support.     

A literature review and citation analyses of air travel demand studies published between 2010 and 2020

Accurate forecasting of air travel demand is vital for the resource planning of the air transportation industry. Therefore, identifying contributing factors and understanding the effect of these factors in causing the variation of air travel demand have been one of the key focus areas in air transportation research. This article reviews 87 air travel demand studies published from 2010 to 2020 and summarizes these studies using their input data and primary analytical methods. We also devise and conduct three citation analyses to further explore the relationships among the reviewed studies. Our review finds that a typical empirical study of air travel demand analysis would focus on the demand at the national level, employ time-series data concerning socio-economic and airline operational factors and use time-series based methods to estimate the relationship among the selected time-series. These studies are mostly applying existing analytical frameworks to specific problems rather than developing original methods, therefore their relationship to each other is parallel rather than sequential. A small number of references are frequently cited by the reviewed studies primarily because of their methodological contribution to time-series analysis. A common limitation of existing literature is that very few reviewed studies provide validation of their analyses. In addition, methods that are not regression or time-series based have very limited application in this area so far, so are the non-convention data such as mobility data or social media data. Besides providing a systematic summary of recent publications in a specific field, this review uses a relatively objective and replicable framework to compare and link studies by their references, which can be visualized by the figures included in this review. This review is expected to benefit future researchers that are interested in either air transportation or the application of time-series forecasting in an applied domain.     

Evaluating the European added value of TEN-T projects: a methodological proposal based on spatial spillovers, accessibility and GIS

This paper develops a methodology for calculating the European value added value (EVA) generated by transport infrastructure projects. This approach is particularly useful for evaluating projects in the framework of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), although it may also be used in trans-national projects in other geographical areas. The methodology is based on the appraisal of spatial spillovers generated by trans-national projects by using accessibility indicators (access to markets) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Projects are split into sections and spillover effects of each section are then computed. The sections that produce a high proportion of spillovers in relation to internal benefits generate a high EVA. Additionally, indicators are obtained of the effects of each section in terms of spatial concentration on the different countries affected, efficiency (general improvement in accessibility) and territorial cohesion (reduction in accessibility disparities between regions). The validity of this approach is verified by applying it to TEN-T priority project 25. This methodology does not seek to replace existing project appraisal methodologies (particularly the cost-benefit analysis); rather it provides complementary data for decision-making. Sections which are scarcely profitable from the cost-benefit analysis perspective but which have high European value added should receive more European funding than more profitable sections of markedly national interest.     

Tourism gateways and regional economies: the distributional impacts of MICE

The meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry is a rapidly expanding sector of tourism world-wide, but particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Of the many challenges underlying development of this sector none is more important than determining the economic benefits from devoting resources to industry growth. The paper argues that although research has been undertaken on the economic impacts of MICE events and MICE destinations, regionally and nationally, the issue of the distribution of these benefits between tourism gateways and more remote regions has been neglected. The paper seeks to help remedy this neglect. It presents a framework for assessing the economic impacts of the MICE industry in a regional economy. It then illustrates how the framework can be used to compare economic impacts of MICE tourism in destination gateways and more remote areas, with the use of Australian data. The paper draws attention to the types of data deficiencies that seem to be endemic to estimating the economic impacts of MICE, and which constitute a barrier to informed public policy making and planning. Finally, the implications are discussed for development of MICE tourism generally. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Searching for policy priorities in the formulation of a freight transport strategy: a canonical correlation analysis of freight industry attitudes

An efficient and effective freight transport strategy can be aided by early professional contributions from key stakeholders. One broad group who have historically been given limited opportunity to influence the drafting of a freight strategy, are commercial road users and shippers who manufacture and distribute goods. Utilising a data set collected in Australia in 1996 from a sample of organisations involved directly and indirectly in road freight transportation, views were sought on road infrastructure changes, new road infrastructure, non-road infrastructure needs and transport policies. An optimal scaling approach using non-linear canonical correlation is implemented to search for structural relationships between the underlying policy and infrastructure dimensions and the various industry categories. This framework provides a powerful mechanism for identifying differences among stakeholders in terms of their support for or opposition to specific policies. Results reveal the considerable differences in attitudes associated with the component parts of the freight industry.     

Analytical models of rail transportation service in the grain supply chain: Deconstructing the operational and economic advantages of shuttle train service

This paper introduces conceptual and mathematical models of the domestic grain supply chain incorporating trucking, elevator storage, and rail transportation. We compare conventional rail service supported by country elevators with shuttle service supported by terminal elevators across three critical transportation service dimensions: travel time, cost, and capacity. Even after taking into account trucking and elevator storage, the time and cost model results indicate that shuttle service transports grain faster and reduces logistical supply chain costs, respectively, relative to conventional service. The rail capacity model results demonstrate that shifting grain from conventional to shuttle service significantly increases rail capacity.     

Aircraft line maintenance scheduling and optimisation

With the advent of new technologies and more modern aircraft, many of the maintenance jobs traditionally scheduled for periodic block checks can now be performed in the ‘‘line maintenance” environment, i.e., during layovers between scheduled flights of an aircraft. This flexibility can be exploited to reduce maintenance costs and improve fleet utilisation of an airline. In this paper we introduce and study the Line Maintenance Scheduling Problem (LMSP). The LMSP assigns jobs to available maintenance opportunities, defined by aircraft routes, and sets the starting time for each job. Its objective is to minimise the deviation from this schedule with respect to given due dates for each task, without exceeding resource capacity at the airports at any moment. We formulate the LMSP as a mixed integer programming problem, and describe and compare two solution approaches for this problem: an integrated exact solution algorithm, which solves job assignment and timetabling simultaneously, and a sequential, heuristic approach. We tested our algorithms on a set of instances inspired on data provided by an industry partner. Our experiments show the applicability of both approaches on realistic settings: the exact approach was able to find the optimal solution for all instances, in less than 10 min on average. Our analysis also shows with an example that line maintenance can be more efficient when capacity is spatially spread, even if the total capacity is reduced.