The impacts of high-speed trains on British economic geography: a study of the UK’s InterCity 125/225 and its effects

The arrival of high-speed trains (HSTs) leads to unprecedented time-space effects, potentially assisting face-to-face contacts in knowledge-generating process, yet its wider spatial-economic impacts are still open to debate. This research attempts to fill in this gap with empirical evidence by studying the inter-regional impacts of upgraded British InterCity 125/225 on British economic geography over 30 years. The six study routes of London-outbound trains serving major railways stations in 26 local authorities were selected as units of analysis, with the observation of differential effects both between HSTs and non-HSTs towns and among each group of towns, to understand time-space effects of InterCity 125/225 whose potential impacts on local economic strength and knowledge intensive development. The key findings suggest that the differential HST effects on British economic geography could be classified into three influential zones, namely 1-h, 2-h, and over-2-h towns. HST has had substantial and demonstrable effects in aiding this transition within a 2-h travel limit of London, thus helping to generate renewed economic growth, but that the effects have not been automatic or universal. Regarding future British HST policy, the implications arising from this study is that cities connected to a new HST could seize opportunities which non-HST cities will not be able to do so, but this is not a zero-sum situation. Instead, it involves a national strategy to develop a hierarchical network with HST between London and key regional hubs, well integrated at these hubs with intra-regional transport systems. This indicates a strong case for a finer-grained and deeper probing analysis at an intra-regional level of the potential for rail improvement as an agent of change in city-region development. We hope to report further on this in a subsequent paper.     

Dive Tourism and Local Communities: Active Participation or Subject to Impacts? Case Studies from Malaysia

Dive tourism impacts were examined in three Malaysian islands: Perhentian (backpackers), Redang (package tourism) and Mabul (upmarket dive tourism). Qualitative local participation approaches were applied to investigate whether host communities were merely reactive to dive tourism's impacts. Dive tourism affected many aspects of community life. Besides physical/ environmental impacts (new infrastructure), research found varied economic impacts including employment/business opportunities and differing economic linkages. Participation varied between locations, and obstacles to increased participation were revealed. Mainly negative socio‐cultural impacts were observed with minimal participation in cultural productions (handicrafts, performances). However, positive educational impacts emerged, especially environmental awareness and English language acquisition. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are wider economic impacts of transport infrastructures always beneficial? Impacts of the Istanbul Metro on the generation of spatio-economic inequalities

Assessment of the Wider Economic Impacts (WEIs) of transport infrastructures has become crucial for justifying transport infrastructure investments, especially large-scale projects, not only for transport researchers but also for policy makers. Although the WEIs have been widely discussed in transport research and policy for more than a decade, these discussions lacked an important dimension: the likelihood of transport infrastructure investments to produce spatio-economic inequalities. This paper discusses the necessity of incorporating an understanding of spatio-economic inequalities in the analysis of WEIs. In order to do that, an ex-post analysis of the Istanbul Metro is carried out. In this sense, this paper also adds to the growing number of ex-post analysis of transport infrastructures. Through its findings based on the ex-post analysis of the impacts of the Istanbul Metro, this paper concludes that contemplating spatio-economic inequalities in ex-ante analysis of transport infrastructure investments will improve the calculation of WEIs of transport infrastructures. Such an approach is expected to help policy makers investing in projects that are less likely to produce spatio-economic inequalities.     

Economic measures of tourism yield: what markets to target?

An understanding of the yield potential of different source markets and segments can underpin destination marketing by both public and private sector organisations. The standard yield measure relates to expenditure injected into a destination from different market segments. This measure has several limitations, which are discussed in the paper. With the increasing sophistication of economic models such as computable general equilibrium, models, it is now feasible to develop new and more useful measures of tourism yield, which directly measure the gains to different stakeholders. Several economy‐wide impact measures of yield are developed and contrasted for selected Australian inbound tourism markets. The measures produce conflicting signals for public and private sector tourism marketers and planners. The reward from further research in developing and operationalising yield measures is more informed policy‐making by destination managers in respect of destination marketing and new product development, resulting in greater economic gains from inbound tourism. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is blockchain technology a watershed for tourism development?

ABSTRACT

The rise of blockchain technology could radically disrupt the global economy. As an emergent technology, blockchain is of broad and current interest in the tourism industry. Small island economies are at the forefront of adopting this digital asset and technology. For instance, the Caribbean economies are launching their first digital legal tender, and Aruba is developing a blockchain platform to boost tourism revenue. Given the velocity of adoption, blockchain technology holds significant implications for tourism development. This research letter provides a discourse on the adoption of blockchain technology among small island economies concerning the opportunities and potential challenges faced and offers practical implications for tourism stakeholders.     

The assessment of the EU–US Open Skies Agreement: The counterfactual and other difficulties

The advent of the EU–US Open Skies Agreement has been widely anticipated. A number of consequences have been predicted, for example, impacts on fares, on passenger volumes, choice and on consumer welfare. Airline costs are also predicted to fall as a result of increased competitiveness and increased cooperation among airlines. In the short period since the implementation of the Agreement, it is relatively easy to assess the supply-side changes that have been made, but more difficult to make wider judgements. For example, can traffic growth be attributed to Open Skies and does airline and alliance market power result in less fare flexibility with consequently less influence on changes in passenger volumes? Have airline costs changed and what has been the source of the savings? This paper offers some insight into the data that will be required to make these and other wider judgements and discusses some methodological difficulties.     

天津国际航空物流中心发展对策探讨

为牢牢把握当下航空物流发展的利好趋势,高质量落实交通强市建设要求,在分析国内外航空物流发展现状的基础上,运用SWOT法从优势、劣势、机会、威胁4个维度,对天津国际航空物流中心发展的战略环境进行分析,并且从货源、通达性和服务3方面构建国际航空物流中心CCS模型,理清发展思路,提出天津国际航空物流中心建设优化对策,即培育稳定货源、优化现有航线网络结构、完善综合交通枢纽体系、优化综合营商环境、研究专项"客改货"和全货机保障方案、完善航空物流发展政策体系。