Tourism in Dubai: overcoming barriers to destination development

The Middle East as a whole attracts comparatively few visitors, and political events in the current century have generated new uncertainties and tensions which seem likely to further discourage tourists and investors. Additional barriers relate to poor accessibility, a perceived lack of conventional attractions and limited promotion. Despite these apparently unfavourable circumstances, international tourism has been adopted by the Dubai authorities as a core element in a programme of economic diversification. They have invested heavily in expensive facilities, as well as undertaken extensive marketing, and the outcome has been strong growth in tourism. There are great expectations of the future, reflected in the setting of very high arrival targets. However, there are also several constraints that might inhibit progress, with a need to review strategies. The experience of Dubai thus serves to illustrate factors that are critical to destination development, major impediments and approaches to overcoming these. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

Factors influencing the intentions of passengers regarding full service and low cost carriers: A note

This study investigates discrepancy in factors affecting passengers' intensions regarding using full service and low cost carriers. A conceptual model, that originally focused on the former, is adopted and slightly revised according to the service properties of low cost carriers. To validate the revised model, a questionnaire survey on passengers of Spring Airlines, the first low cost airline in China, was conducted. The results indicate differences in attitudes towards full service and low cost carriers. Service perception is a latent variable with the most significant influence on intentions about using full service carriers, but exhibits less effect on intentions regarding low cost operators. Conversely, service value exerts the greatest effect on intentions for possible low cost passengers.     

Using analytic network process to measure the determinants of low cost carriers purchase intentions: A comparison of potential and current customers

The goal of this study is to use the analytic network process (ANP) approach to develop an evaluation model which prioritized the relative weights of determinants of low cost carriers (LCCs) purchase intentions between potential and current customers. A field study with 96 potential customers and 84 current customers of LCCs was performed. The results found some similarities and differences between potential and current customers with regard to the determinants of LCCs purchase intentions. With respect to the final weights of these determinants, both customer groups considered “reliability and image” to be the important factor that affects their intentions to purchase LCCs. Additionally, “price and convenience” received a higher weighting by potential customers, while current customers emphasized the importance of “employee services”. The evaluation model and the results obtained using it provide a valuable reference for LCC managers who are seeking to facilitate effective customer relationship management.     

Tourism in the Middle East: Conflicts,Crises and Economic Diversification,Some Critical Issues

This paper briefly examines tourism activity over a 60‐year period in the UNWTO Middle East region together with Israel and Iran. The region has been subject to political turmoil over that period, and its tourist arrivals have not fully capitalized on the potential that the region holds. The region has a wealth of heritage, a climate conducive to tourism and a range of leisure resources that should provide a comparative and competitive advantage to its tourism industry. This paper examines the vulnerability of tourism in the region as countries try to diversify their economies away from energy dependence. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Drivers and barriers to the adoption and diffusion of Sustainable Jet Fuel (SJF) in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Sustainable Jet Fuel (SJF) represents an important component of the airline industry's strategy to simultaneously reduce GHG emissions while meeting a growing demand for international air travel. SJFs also have the potential to provide fuel supply diversification and security, enhance fuel price stability and provide regional/rural economic development benefits. This paper measures and ranks perceived drivers and barriers to an economically viable SJF industry in a unique U.S. region, the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW), through personal interviews with key aviation fuel supply chain stakeholders conducted from June to September 2015. In addition to providing a fertile arena for this first effort to systematically assess these drivers and barriers, the U.S. PNW is unique due to the region's long strategic focus on aviation innovation and its importance to the regional economy, the seminal efforts in the region to outline a path forward on SJF beginning in 2010, and the relatively small population spread over a large geographic area with a limited number of “hub” airport nodes which geographically concentrates aviation fuel demand and distribution. Nineteen stakeholder interviewees acknowledge that, in order for regional SJF adoption-diffusion to occur, airline jet fuel buyers must drive the process, particularly as they deal with greenhouse gas (GHG) emission issues and related policy considerations. Important perceived barriers to SJF industry scale-up in the U.S. PNW include the high production costs of SJF and related issues, such as fuel logistics and quality control in the transport, storage, and blending of SJFs. Perceptions around chain-of-custody issues, such as blending, tracking, and crediting of SJFs and future SJF market share projections for the year 2030 were also examined. Incorporating stakeholder input into discussions about adding blended SJF into the U.S. aviation fuel supply provides needed insight for the biofuels industry, policymakers, and researchers.     

Air transport demand and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: Direction of causality

Air transport may be a key tool to advance economic development. However, it is uncertain whether air transport boosts economic development, or vice versa. Both views have theoretical and empirical support. In some countries and regions, air transport is important for initiating development, for example by attracting foreign direct investment or granting access to lifelines. Elsewhere, economic development drives air transport demand. Establishing the direction of causality for regions/countries segmented by income level may inform pragmatic policy. This study analyzes the causal relationship between air transport demand and economic development for six sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1981–2018. Vector error correction and vector autoregression models are employed to identify long- and short-run causalities. The results reveal heterogeneous, context-specific causal relationships. In the long-run, for South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, the direction of causality runs from economic development to air transport demand; for Ethiopia, causality runs in the opposite direction, with increased demand for air transport promoting economic development; and for Senegal and Angola, the relationship is too weak to infer causal directions. Possible explanations for this heterogeneity include differences in per capita income, low-cost carriers' share of national aviation markets, the presence of large home-based airlines, and comparative geographical advantage as a natural hub.     

International tourism and economic development in South Africa: a Granger causality test

One of the major objectives of macroeconomic policies in many developing countries is sustained economic growth, and South Africa has been striving to achieve and maintain this in various ways. One of these is through international tourism. Although international tourism contributes to the growth of many economies, it is in turn, impacted by growth in many developed countries. Real gross domestic product (GDP), international tourism earnings, real effective exchange rate and exports were analysed within a multivariate vector auto regressive model using annual data covering 1980–2005. The main focus of this study therefore was to demonstrate the direction of causality between international tourism earnings and long‐run economic growth of South Africa, among other variables, using Granger causality analysis. The result obtained showed a unidirectional causality running from international tourism earnings to real GDP, both in the short run and in the long run. The error correction mechanism carried out also supported this causality. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social segregation around the clock in the Paris region (France)

While social scientists have invested a lot of energy in exploring the uneven distribution of social groups in the city, they have surprisingly limited their efforts to investigating social segregation at the place of residence. The present paper investigates social segregation over the 24 h a day in the Paris region, taking into account how social groups move within a city throughout the day.From a large and precise daily travel survey carried out in the Paris region (EGT 2010) among 25,500 respondents aged 16 or over, we have computed segregation indices and maps hour by hour from respondents' educational and socioprofessional indicators. We then observed that social segregation within the Paris region decreases during the day and that the most segregated group (the upper class group) during the night remains the most segregated during the day. We also explored how the co-presence between various social groups evolves throughout the day. Finally, we highlighted some large variations in districts' social composition over 24 h: districts with similar social composition during the night can differ deeply in their social composition during the day-time because of socially selective daily trips.Exploring social segregation around the clock helps in considering more dynamically place effects on individual behavior and targeting areas to implement interventions more connected with the real city rhythm.     

Road infrastructure and economic development in the periphery: the case of A55 improvements in North Wales

This paper examines the impact of a major road improvement programme on the economic development of North Wales. The paper identifies the economic impacts of the road on a selection of firms and organisations in North Wales, and provides a modelling framework to examine the static and dynamic effects of road improvements. Road improvements across North Wales are found to be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for economic development in this peripheral area.     

Aviation growth in the Middle East – impacts on incumbent players and potential strategic reactions

In order to wean their economies away from declining oil reserves some Middle Eastern countries pursue substantial investments into their aviation sector. The bulk of these investments concentrates on the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and comprises fleet expansions stoked by massive airport extensions and development projects. Following an assessment of current growth processes in the Middle East, this paper analyzes the impacts of this development on flight patterns as well as on the incumbent airlines and airport operators. Furthermore, fields for potential strategic reaction are presented.Our results show that Middle Eastern carriers will soon emerge as serious global competitors to the established carriers. Since there is no sufficient regional demand to fill their capacity, these carriers aim at redirecting international traffic flows from Europe and the Americas to Asia. As a result, major players particularly in Europe and Asia will be directly affected. However, our results also indicate that for some markets Middle Eastern players are unfavourably positioned concerning parameters like flight time and required connection flights.     

转变发展理念规范计划管理为推动铁路科学发展作出新贡献（摘要）

深入贯彻全国铁路工作会议和发展改革工作会议精神,总结2011年铁路发展计划工作,分析当前面临的形势,研究部署2012年重点工作,动员铁路发展计划系统服务铁路建设与运输经营,为加快转变铁路发展方式、推进铁路科学发展而努力奋斗。     

朝鲜茂山铁矿开发与中国东北东边道铁路建设

为满足中国钢铁企业快速发展的需要,一些企业将注意力转向了邻国朝鲜的矿产资源开发。通过分析论述朝鲜茂山铁矿的开发和中国参与合作的途径,提出加快中国东北东边道铁路建设的建议,同时对紧邻朝鲜茂山铁矿的白河—和龙段铁路建设的意义、设计标准、建设规模进行了论述。     

金融风暴下低成本航空的机遇及对策

目前，由于航空运输与国民经济发展的高度相关性，金融危机的爆发已对全球民航运输业造成巨大的冲击，油价的剧烈波动和需求大幅下降使航空运输发展迅速放缓，航空运输业已成为受冲击最严重的五大行业之一。由于需求疲软，2008年全球民航业已亏损80多亿美元，国际航空运输协会（IATA）的数据显示，预计2009年全球航空业收入将比2008年下降350亿美元。     

Mergers and acquisitions in the EU low cost carrier market. A Product and Organisation Architecture (POA) approach to identify potential merger partners

As the EU low cost airline sector matures, consolidation is expected. This paper details a three-stage methodology to examine LCCs mergers and acquisition activity. A series of depth interviews with aviation experts concludes that the motives for LCCs to enter mergers and acquisitions are largely similar to those of full service carriers. A key success factor for merging partners is to have similar business models and culture. An analysis of full service and low cost carrier mergers and acquisition activity events shows that the size ratio and degree of network overlap between merging airlines are also independent of airline type. Braxton and BCG analyses of EU LCCs show Ryanair and easyJet to be the only LCCs in the market with strong strategic positions across the markets they serve. Finally, an application of the Product and Organisation Architecture analytical approach was used to compare seven EU LCCs. easyJet and Vueling were found to have the most similar business models and were therefore considered the best strategic fit for a potential merger.     

Entry patterns of low-cost carriers in Hong Kong and implications to the regional market

This study aims to provide a better understanding of Asia's low-cost carriers (LCCs) by empirically analysing their route entry patterns in Hong Kong. Two alternative models have been tested, namely a standard probit model and a generalized least squares estimation. Consistent findings from the two models suggest that LCCs in Asia have a preference for large markets with big populations, high incomes and high traffic volume. On the other hand, the dominance of incumbent full service airlines (FSAs), fierce route competition and the lack of secondary airports are not critical to the growth of LCCs. However, government regulations and airport access are main impediment factors. Despite the adoption of long-distance low-cost models by the region's airlines, geographic distance still plays an important role in LCCs' entry decisions. For the growth of low-cost travel and associated benefits in the tourism industry and overall economy, it is important for governments in the region to liberalize aviation markets, provide sufficient airport capacity, and promote efficient allocation of airport slots.     

Immigrants and transport barriers to employment: The case of Southeast Asian welfare recipients in California

Increasing international migration has prompted public officials to develop policies to better integrate foreign-born residents. While scholars have shown the positive relationship between access to transport and economic outcomes among low-income adults, very little is known about this relationship with respect to immigrants. This study examines transport and employment rates among low-income adults focusing specifically on Southeast Asian refugees. The findings show the importance of automobiles across all racial and ethnic groups. Southeast Asians, however, report the greatest difficulty with their travel largely because they face auto-related problems including the age and unreliability of their vehicles. These findings suggest the need for both universal and group-specific policies for addressing the transport needs of the poor.     

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.     

Network competition and the difference in operating cost: Model analysis

In this paper, we propose a bi-level air transport market model which can handle the shape of network, airfare and service frequency as airline’s control variables and passenger’s behavior. We apply the model to the simple duopolistic market and observe how airlines change their network shape. We assume two types of airlines, the incumbent and the entrant, having different operating cost and conduct numerical computation. From the results, we discuss the features of network equilibrium considering difference in operating cost and confirm that inviting low cost carriers contributes to improving social welfare.