Moral Dilemmas of Participation in Dangerous Leisure Activities

Abstract

Participation in risky leisure activities (including so‐called ‘extreme’ sports) has increased in recent years, along with a concomitant growth in the related supporting industries, and in media coverage of events and associated lifestyles. The rise in popularity of dangerous leisure pursuits has led to questions about whether these activities should be regulated, or whether legislation should be enacted to prohibit particular activities. Arguments have centred on harm to individuals, and on the potential costs to others, such as families, rescue workers, and society at large. Very little work has been done on the moral legitimacy of dangerous leisure pursuits, and this paper attempts to address this, using a multidisciplinary approach. The paper evaluates both paternalistic and libertarian approaches, and pursues solutions to the moral problem from both utilitarian (consequence‐based) and deontological (duty‐based) perspectives. It is concluded that mature, rational individuals ought to retain the right to pursue activities that have potential deleterious consequences for themselves. While recognising that individuals ought to concern themselves with the effects of their actions on others, the paper accepts arguments based on autonomy, and defends the right to engage in dangerous leisure activities.     

The role of tourism management in adaptation to climate change – a study of a European inland area with a diversified tourism supply

The Carpathian Basin is one of the most vulnerable European regions in terms of potential climate change impacts on biodiversity. Its wide range of tourism activities make it uniquely suitable for assessing the effects of climate change on tourism. This research sought to create a Tourism Adaptation Portfolio (TAP) for the Szentendre micro-region in Hungary and to assemble an adaptation toolbox for current and future use by tourism organizations. The TAP contains practical, easy to implement solutions for key stakeholders in the sector by adaptation type (technology, management, behavior, education, policy). Surveys of local tourism suppliers showed that 70% said they were well informed, largely by the Internet, but 55% admitted to not knowing enough. The methodology outlined here is transferable and the process can be replicated elsewhere, supporting other regions in becoming climate-friendly tourism destinations, creating opportunities for uniquely positioning a region for consumers. The article provides a concise overview of tourism provider attitudes assessed through a questionnaire, shedding light on points of intervention, willingness to pay, main barriers and suitable adaptation instruments. The adaptive capacity of stakeholders is also discussed, which is indispensable for implementing successful practices in adaptation and maintaining the current level of environmental services.     

区域旅游一体化能实现吗？——基于Salop模型的SPNE研究

文章基于Salop圆周城市模型, 在区域旅游产品特征及区域旅游合作方式分类的基础上, 研究区域旅游一体化的最佳合作方式及实现条件; 考虑区域旅游地合作方式对利润及旅游产品价格的影响, 通过区分区域旅游地的资源导向和市场及形象导向型两种常见情况, 引入两阶段博弈法, 按照两种区域旅游利润最大化的合作方式分别进行求解。结果表明：区域旅游合作是基于旅游产品的差异、同质化程度, 采取不同的协调方式进行的, 主线是促进差异化, 控制同质产品的内部竞争力;追求各自利润最大化下的契约式合作是区域旅游合作的最佳方式。如果政府间要实行行政组织一体化策略, 则只有在各旅游地旅游产品同质化时才易推行, 但是这种竞争状态并不稳定;区域旅游一体化是要利用行政力量削弱行政壁垒, 倡导市场要素流动的无障碍化。     

Regional Developments by Making Intellectual Property Public Domain

In this paper, the Japanese methods of regional developments with media contents are being analyzed. Taking Hokkaido or Sakaimitato as examples, the effects on the tourism with media contents will be explained in detail. Then, as a new idea, the concept of local consumed intellectual property will be proposed. Finally, the measures of solution of copyright which is difficult to deal with when using media contents would be discussed by including legislations.     

Estimating the Economic Impact of Convention and Exhibition Businesses,Using a Regional Input–Output Model: A Case Study of the Daejeon Convention Center in South Korea

Past research on the economic impact of convention and exhibition businesses has neglected disaggregated expenditures of these consumer groups. The primary reason for this neglect is that estimating the economic impacts of these businesses is complicated and requires comprehensive surveys of various consumer groups. Thus, this study estimated expenditures based on surveys to different consumers such as convention and exhibition visitors, convention and exhibition organizers, and exhibitors. This study also employed a regional input–output (I–O) model and then matched the types of expenditure patterns with the I–O table. Survey results show that exhibition visitors spent the largest amount (US$153 million), followed by convention attendees (US$48 million), convention organizers (US$47 million), exhibition organizers (US$3.3 million), and exhibitors (US$2.8 million). The results of the I–O model indicate that the Daejeon Convention Center generated US$488 million of output impact, US$102 million of income impact, US$233 million of value added impact, and 10,211 jobs.     

Application of Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) and delineation of natural risk zones in Greater Lisbon,Portugal

Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) was applied to Greater Lisbon (Portugal). Based on the concepts used for the SoVI assessments in the US, 46 variables representing social vulnerability of the 149 civil parishes of Greater Lisbon were chosen. Thirty-eight variables were selected after application of correlation tests. They were standardized, and a Principal Component Analysis and a Varimax rotation were applied to them. Seven factors were extracted using the Kaiser criterion, which explain 79.5% of the variance, and the SoVI scores were then mapped using a standard deviation classification. Twelve of the 149 civil parishes of Greater Lisbon have a very high social vulnerability and 24 of them have a high social vulnerability. The map of SoVI was then integrated with susceptibility maps of earthquakes, floods, flash floods, landslides, tsunami, and coastal erosion, thus delineating risk zones. Twenty-two civil parishes of Greater Lisbon have a very high risk; among them, 17 belong to Lisbon Municipality, four belong to Loures Municipality, and one belongs to Vila Franca de Xira Municipality. Finally, exposed population was considered and combined with risk zones map in order to assess the number of people being potentially exposed to risk and their location.     

New evidence of regional income divergence in post-reform Russia

This article investigates regional income convergence in Russia during 2000–2008. We test the hypothesis in which income divergence across regions of the country should give place to income convergence as the country moves toward free market economy with strong market institutions. The study contributes to the existing literature by using the exponential smooth autoregressive Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) unit root test in a panel setup, a novel econometric technique, which encompasses cross sectional dependence. Results show strong evidence of on-going regional income divergence in post-reform period.     

A new approach to the identification of regional clusters: hierarchical clustering on principal components

This study focuses on the identification of regional business clusters as a primary step in the design and implementation of cluster-based development strategies. A methodology that has not been used previously to identify clusters is applied to data on inter-industry linkages from the input–output table of a region in northern Spain. The first advantage of this approach, hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC), over the use of factorial analysis alone, is that it involves the application of objective clustering techniques to the principal components analysis results, which leads to a better cluster solution. A second advantage is derived from using a mixed algorithm for the clustering process – a combination of the Ward’s classification method with the K-means algorithm – which improves the robustness of the final results.     

Dynamics of environmental quality and economic development: the regional experience from Yangtze River Delta of China

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between economic progress and environmental quality at a regional level. An important economic intuition in this context is that environmental degradation will be limited by human behaviour if costs and benefits of such degradation are local since economic agents will then be incentivized to choose appropriate corrective action. Therefore, we note the likelihood that regional economic development can help regions ‘grow out of’ environmental problems. Using a new data set from Yangtze River Delta of China, we find a strong confirmation of the intuition that human can and will resolve the environmental problem by altering the damaging behaviour of economic agents. A very interesting finding of this study is that the relationship between environmental quality and economic progress measured by per capita income can display a wave-like function in the case of water pollution, as opposed to the much dramatized environmental Kuznets curve, with significant policy implications.