Tourism and Governance in Small Island Developing States (SIDS): The Case of Zanzibar

Tourism in small island developing states (SIDS) has long been defined in terms of dependency. However, less attention has been paid to the role of the state in SIDS, particularly the extent to which it supports tourism as an agent of development. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to consider the governance of tourism development in SIDS, specifically the extent to which the state may promote or hinder tourism‐related development. Drawing on research in Zanzibar, it reveals the ways in which poor governance has acted as a barrier to development through tourism, concluding that the state has an unwillingness to support tourism. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Travel and tourism competitiveness index: The impact of air transportation,railways transportation,travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of air transportation, railways transportation, travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism in a panel of 19 tourists - oriented countries, over a period of 1990–2014. By applying principal component analysis, the study constructs travel and tourism competitiveness index for inbound and outbound tourism. The main constructs of inbound tourism index include international tourists' arrival, tourism receipts, receipts of passengers' transports items and travel items while the constructs of the outbound index include international tourists' departure, tourism expenditures, and expenditures for passengers transport and travel items. The result of panel Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) regression shows that the presence of air transportation, railways transportation, and trade openness positively affect inbound tourism index, while travel and transport services negatively affect tourism competitiveness index. The causality results confirm the bidirectional relationship between inbound tourism, air transportation, railways passengers carried, trade openness and travel and transport services, while there is a unidirectional causality running from inbound index to railway goods transported, from air transport freight to trade factor, and from travel services to air transport freight. Outbound tourism index confirmed the bidirectional causality relationship with air transportation, railways transportation, and travel and transport services, while the causality running from outbound index to trade factor, from air transport passenger carried to travel services, and from railway goods transported to trade and transport services, which support the unidirectional causality relationship between them. The variance decomposition results show that air transportation freight is the contributor that largely influences inbound-outbound tourism, while railways passengers carried and trade openness has the least share to influence inbound and outbound tourism index for the next 10-year period. The impulse response function indicates that air transportation, railways transportation, trade openness and travel services will positively impact on inbound truism while travel and transport services will positively affect outbound tourism for the next 10-year period. The study concludes with the importance of transportation sector that deem desirable to promote tourism worldwide. The concentration of different modes of transportation including air transportation, railways transportation, and travel and transport system would helpful to advance international tourism.     

Air transport and tourism—Perspectives and challenges for destinations,airlines and governments

Air transport and tourism are interlinked. Tourism is a driving factor for and, in some cases, a stimulator of change in air transport; most notably the development of new business models such as charter airlines. On the other hand, air transport opened new destinations and tourism forms such as long-haul excursions. Here these interlinks are analyzed in a system model. For the strategic development of destinations, a clear airline policy and air access strategy seems to be necessary. For airlines an assessment and understanding of the business models of destinations is essential. By shaping the external regulative environment of air traffic, government may influence air traffic as well as tourism.     

The effects on tourism of airfare subsidies for residents: The key role of packaging strategies

Airfare subsidies for residents in remote tourism destinations can negatively affect the local tourism industry. In this paper, we study the effects of airfare subsidies on a remote region's tourism sector with a theoretical model of air transport and tourism service transactions involving a remote tourism region, the rest of the country and the rest of the world. We show that firms' widespread packaging strategies in tourism markets, i.e. selling tourism packages composed of air transport and tourism services at a single price, acts as hidden price discrimination, since the packages are cheaper than buying the services separately. Thus, in the presence of higher airfares due to a subsidy, the tourists not entitled to the subsidy have incentives to switch to a cheaper alternative, namely tourism packages. Consequently, a packaging strategy can lessen or even avoid the negative impacts of the subsidy on a region's tourism sector.     

A case study: The impact of low-cost carriers on inbound tourism of Saudi Arabia

This study investigates the impact of low-cost carriers (LCCs) on Saudi Arabia's tourism demand. It also provides an understanding of the relationship between air transport development and tourism development in the Gulf region. The Box–Jenkins SARIMA-X models were employed to model and forecast international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia, using monthly international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia from July 2010 to December 2015. The forecasting models were significantly accurate, with lower values of MAPE, MAP, and RMSE. The findings suggest that an increase in airline capacity, religious travel, and airline competition are associated with the increasing international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia. This also indicates that there is a positive relationship between air transport development and tourism development. Further aviation liberalisation in the Gulf region is discussed to give opportunities for the region's LCCs to increase their share of the increasing air travel demand, thereby enhancing tourism development.     

Major environmental impacts of European tourist transport

By merging European passenger transport demand data with international tourism data, a new data model was created, giving insight in the environmental impacts of tourism transport between the places of residence of European Union citizens and their tourist destinations. Analysis with this data model shows that, of the environmental impacts considered (climate change, air quality, noise and nature/landscape), climate change generates more than half of the externalities of tourist transport. Policies with the objective of reducing the external cost of European tourism should focus on measures reducing the impacts of tourist air transportation and intercontinental tourism.     

Assessing the impacts of aviation liberalisation on tourism: Some methodological considerations derived from the Moroccan and Tunisian cases

At a time when the liberalisation of air transport is increasingly being promoted as a means to induce the growth of the tourism business, it is striking that there is little evidence to suggest that such liberalisation has indeed led to a growth in tourism. Furthermore, the evidence is usually restricted to the impacts of sole low-cost airlines on tourist destinations newly served by such airlines. In contrast to various ideological or naïve statements, this paper shows that assessing the relationship between liberalised air markets and trends in tourism is challenging. On the transport side, aviation liberalisation is rarely considered as a dimension that can be measured accurately; similar protected markets are not considered for comparison; and trends in charter flights are neglected. On the tourist side, broad definitions of so-called tourists are usually considered and include immigrants visiting their home country; nights spent are neglected, despite a possible trend in declining length of stay; and substitution between places is usually disregarded, as are the long-term effects.     

Maintaining competitiveness of aviation hub: Empirical evidence of visitors to China via Hong Kong by air transport

Prior studies have not extensively researched and explored the key determinants (aviation and tourism attributes) that could affect Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a transit hub for international visitors using Hong Kong as a stopover to Chinese cities when travelling by air. This study adds to that knowledge to empirically investigate Hong Kong’s eight major tourist source markets (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US), and also provides an insight to policy-makers in Hong Kong to help them understand the factors that influence Hong Kong’s aviation hub competitiveness and tourism development. The findings of the study suggest that increased air transport capacity from foreign countries and Hong Kong to China, trade volumes between China and its trading partners, air transport costs, and the global financial crisis are the key factors affecting the number of visitors to China by air passing through Hong Kong as their preferred stopover. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Air transport and tourism – a systematic literature review (2000–2014)

This paper reviews the literature at the intersection between air transport and tourism research. While air transport and tourism are mutually dependent sectors, there is little research on their interaction. A systematic literature review method was used to select and analyse relevant journal articles published in 54 Australian Business Dean Council (ABDC) A*, A, or B-ranked journals from 2000 to 2014. Research themes, leading researchers, their institutions, and geographical locations are discussed. An extended framework for classification of the literature is developed through the content and thematic analysis. Among the identified research themes, ‘environment’, ‘passengers’, and ‘airlines’ are found to be the most common. The use of a systematic review has identified gaps in the literature and directions for future studies. Some of the identified areas that are showing a growing interest in the interrelationship between aviation and tourism include air route/service development; passenger experiences; low-cost carriers and their impact on tourism; implications of new direct long-haul flights; and carbon offsets.     

The role of inter-island air transport in the Canary Islands

The Canary Islands depend almost completely on air transport for the inter-island distances usually exceeding 80–100 miles.¹ Apart from the transport of heavy cargo and that of low unit value by sea transport, the rest of the traffic tends to choose this means. What is more, tourism is developing in the main island and is highly dependent on air transport. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the quality of regular inter-island air transport in the Canary Islands, and how this is incorporated into the Trans-Insular Transport Axis as a social and economic integrating factor.     

Economic influences on air transport in Vietnam 2006–2019

Vietnam has emerged from a long and complex post-colonial experience as a fast-growing economy now embedded in the complex network of economic linkages in the Asia-Pacific region. Those linkages involve trade, foreign direct investment, and tourism. Their underlying geography is reflected in the geography of Vietnam's air transport linkages. An early set of air connections with ASEAN neighbours, especially Singapore and Malaysia, are still significant, though routes to South Korea and China are now more important. Within the country, the colonial structure of Hanoi as a political capital, and Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) as a trading city, provided the framework for domestic air transport linkages. Here too the geography has shifted to include a set of smaller cities, especially those with tourism activities. The Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City corridor is still dominant, and now ranks as one of the busiest domestic routes within the Asia-Pacific. These outcomes confirm the effect of economic development on air transport in Vietnam.     

From hub to tourist destination – An explorative study of Singapore and Dubai's aviation-based transformation

The growth of air transport networks and deregulation have allowed small, low-populated places like Singapore and Dubai to become major international tourism destinations. Both have used tightly combined airline, airport and tourism strategies to help achieve this. Here we analyse developments in Singapore and Dubai by examining interactions between their airlines, airports, governments and tourism authorities, and how integrated management strategies leveraged their aviation traffic hubs to develop tourism destinations.     

Modelling the volatility of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand

International visitor arrivals are considered to be a major source of foreign exchange, tourism-related employment and other tourism-related activities. This study used SARIMAX/(E)GARCH volatility models to forecast visitor arrivals by air transport to New Zealand from its eight key tourist source markets (Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US)) and control macroeconomic factors together with global and regional structural changes. The empirical models reveal that the macroeconomic factors contributed at various levels to different markets, and the models we provided made accurate and reliable forecasts for visitor arrivals by air transport from all studied markets. The results from the markets for Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK showed that significantly negative tourism demand shocks increased the volatility of tourism arrivals, more than positive tourism demand shocks of equal magnitude. Accordingly, the findings of this study will allow policy-makers in the New Zealand tourism sector and other stakeholders (e.g. airline management) to better understand the impacts on the volatility of visitor arrivals to New Zealand.     

European Union-Latin America/Caribbean air transport connectivity and competitiveness in different air policy contexts

This paper discusses the factors that affect network connectivity and competitiveness in the European Union and Latin America/Caribbean air transport market. The methodology is based on detailed real origin and destination data that allow the calculation of levels of market concentration and segmentation, airport connectivity and network efficiency. The bilateral markets analyzed compare unfavourably with other inter-continental markets, even though the economic growth of the countries involved would suggest otherwise. The market is dominated by a small number of airports and airlines, and connectivity in several Latin American and Caribbean states is over-dependent on tourism. Geographic factors can partially explain the situation identified, while the impact of policy, especially as regards the fragmented moves towards liberalisation, is also discussed.     

Civil aviation regimes and leisure tourism in Europe

The paper discusses the implications of modern civil aviation regimes for tourism in Europe. A discussion of the relation between air transport and tourism sets the foundation for the study focus. The market strategies of the players involved are examined within a multidimensional framework of corporate rivalry during regulation and liberalisation. The connotations for tourism origins, destinations and consumers are presented and policy measures are suggested for the alleviation of emerging problems.     

Martin Kunz Memorial Lecture. Tourism benefits and aviation policy

Many tourists now travel by air, and aviation liberalisation has greatly contributed to the boom in international tourism. The relevance of tourism economic benefits in aviation policy decisions is becoming established, though there has been little by of analysis of these, of how they can be measured. Here, the nature of tourism's economic benefits is discussed, and ways of measuring them are suggested. These rely on the use of computable general equilibrium models of economies. The measures of tourism benefits obtained from these are positive, though they smaller than more ad-hoc measures which are sometimes used, such as total tourism expenditure. The role of tourism benefits in aviation policy making is considered in several case studies. These indicate that while the tourism benefits to a country from aviation liberalisation are not likely to be as large as benefits to home country travellers or the costs to home country airlines, they are sufficiently large to tilt the balance of benefits and costs of liberalisation in many cases.     

The economic impact of aviation: A review on the role of market access

In recent decades, advancements in telecommunications and (air) transportation have driven globalisation processes. Consequently, policymakers and scholars view access to transportation as an essential prerequisite for economic development. For aviation, existing empirical studies have attempted to estimate the wider economic impacts from regional, country-level and global perspectives. However, no theoretical framework has yet been presented that comprehensively captures the full set of mechanisms by which aviation can contribute to economic development. Such a framework would cover both positive and negative regional impacts, as well as the mechanisms and spatial distribution behind them. In this paper, we use a New Economic Geography approach to comprehensively describe the impact mechanisms. We then apply this theoretical framework to an empirical study of metrics of air transport supply, which policymakers and researchers can use to assess how well airports and their surrounding regions are connected by means of the air transport network. The results of our analysis can inform scholars and policymakers on how air transport can shape economic geography and the productivity of economic systems. The results might also provide guidance for future empirical work on the wider economic impacts of air transportation.     

Air transport policy and its impacts on passenger traffic and tourist flows

This paper attempts to derive policy indices to quantify the restrictiveness of the aviation regimes in the Asia-Pacific region, and use the indices to establish the relationship between people movement and liberalisation in policy. Australia and Singapore have the most liberalised environment in this region. Evidence has been found that passenger traffic between city-pairs has been hampered by the restrictive air transport policies. Restrictions on the air transport sector also have a substantial negative impact on bilateral tourist flows. Further liberalisation in this sector could help build up a stronger tourism industry.     

The impact of low cost airline operations to Malta

In 2006 the controversial step was undertaken by the Maltese government to provide incentives for new routes with the intention of attracting low cost carriers to fly to the Islands. This paper examines the impact that low cost airline operations are likely to have on the volume and profile of passengers visiting Malta. The focus is on whether the low cost carriers are merely facilitating existing custom in terms of tourism flows, or whether they are attracting a different kind of visitor. The analysis uses data from a number of air transport and tourism sources and concentrates on the UK; the largest tourist market and where the low cost carriers are likely to have the greatest impact. Initially the effects of low cost carriers to date are examined and then there is an assessment of the longer-term impacts investigating recent developments of other low cost routes from the UK. The evidence shows that traffic to Malta increased significantly in 2007 but these additional travellers do not seem to be more interested in history or culture, nor do they take shorter trips or travel more in off-peak times. This is unlike the situation at a number of other European destinations where the introduction of regular low cost services has provided the flexibility for short break cultural tourism to develop.     

The Northeast Asian air transport network: is there a possibility of creating Open Skies in the region?

Unlike in the US and the European Union aviation markets, the Northeast Asian markets are still very fragmented. As a result, the passenger and air freight collection/distribution systems in the region are very inefficiently organized. The primary reason for the inefficient and inconvenient air carrier networks in the region is the restrictive bilateral air services agreements between Asian countries. This paper documents the nature and extent of the restrictive bilateral agreements among China, Japan and Korea, evaluates several bilateral or trilateral approaches for liberalizing the regional air transport markets, and makes a proposal which would increase substantially the probability of achieving an Open Skies market in the region. In particular, the current approach to liberalize the bilateral air services agreements among China, Korea and Japan has limitations even in the medium term because of China's and, to a less extent, Japan's reluctance to remove price and capacity restrictions. Therefore, as an institutional solution we propose to create bi-national (for bilateral negotiations) or tri-national (for trilateral negotiations) ‘Trade and Transport Facilitation Committees’, that can pursue a practical avenue to tie air transport negotiations with those of other goods and services trade.