Socio-cultural criteria for the evaluation of rural tourism projects – a Delphi consultation

Tourism scholars highlight the use of evaluation as a tool in managing the development of tourism. However, despite the potential for extending knowledge and understanding, few evaluation studies form an integral part of tourism development practice. The study from which this article is drawn is exploratory in nature and investigates the possibility of formulating an index of generic criteria, for application in the development and management of rural tourism projects. Complementary research methods comprised a Delphi Survey, followed by a focus group and semi-structured interviews. This article focuses on those criteria, generated by Delphi panellists in Britain and South Africa, which pertain to the socio-cultural structure and environment in which rural tourism projects are located, the resources on which they are based and the adoption of appropriate management strategies to ensure that these are conserved and sustained. However, despite their support for the criteria generated respondents emphasised that, unless projects were financially viable and operated according to business principles, local communities would bear the costs of rural tourism development without reaping its benefits.     

The air transport market in Central and Eastern Europe after a decade of liberalisation – Different paths of growth

This paper describes the changes which are taking place in air transport for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia in the context of liberalisation. It also attempts to identify the common and specific factors that influence these processes in different markets of the region. The indicators for the development of the aviation market were designed using, among other things, statistics describing the infrastructure facilities and the level of activity in the market. Composite indicators and the weights for their individual components were constructed using a Multidimensional Comparative Analysis. The conditions under which changes were taking place in Central and Eastern European Countries were described with the help of selected socio-economic panel data. Finally, One-Way Fixed Effects and Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) models describing the development of the aviation markets were estimated. The adopted procedure made it possible to identify the most important common and specific factors that exerted the greatest influence on the situation of air transport in CEE Countries. The very initiation of the liberalisation process undoubtedly had a significantly beneficial effect on the development of route networks and aviation activities as broadly understood. However, the pace of change depended not only on the progress of liberalisation itself, but also on the diverse socio-economic conditions in the individual countries. As a result of the analysis, the markets were divided into two separate groups, which in many respects are distinctly different from each other. The results of the estimation models also showed that there are strong unobservable determinants of development which are specific to individual countries.     

Valuation of travel time for international long-distance travel – results from the Fehmarn Belt stated choice experiment

The geographical scope of travel varies from short distances in urban areas to long distances across cities and countries. While urban travel has been widely analysed in the literature, travel over longer distances and particularly across countries, has received much less attention. While this may be justified due to the number of travellers it cannot be justified when looking at the mileage consumption and its resulting environmental impacts. In this paper, we investigate international long-distance travel preferences related to travel between Scandinavia and Central Europe with particular focus on the Fehmarn Belt fixed link between Germany and Denmark to be opened in 2021. To facilitate long-term demand forecasts for the future fixed link, stated preference data were collected in 2011. Based on these data a discrete choice model for long-distance travellers was developed in order to estimate the value of travel time savings (VTTS). The final model, which was formulated as a nested logit model and included Box–Cox transformed travel time and cost attributes, revealed several interesting findings. Firstly, we found damping effects in both cost and time – most strongly in cost. Secondly, we found significant interactions among travel cost and time, and journey characteristics, such as distance and duration. This had direct impact on the VTTS, which was shown to decrease with distance and duration. Thirdly, we found that air travel implies a higher average VTTS, which is to be expected but rarely supported by empirical evidence.     

A review of Short Sea Shipping policy in the European Union

Short Sea Shipping (SSS) has attracted a lot of attention in the European Union in the last 15 years. It is considered as a mode favoured to alleviate road congestion. Alas, promises have not been met and cargo transfers have not reached their objectives yet, despite strong financial will and a programme for modal shift implemented by the European Union (EU). The hypothesis raised by this paper is that Short Sea Shipping has not been well defined in the EU and market potential for modal shift from land to sea has been overestimated. Therefore, this has a great impact for policy-making. Studies have covered many topics such as its implementation using case studies, cost-benefit analysis compared to land-transport modes, general European shipping policy and its environmental contribution. Therefore, little has been written on the role of public institutions in its implementation and no critical assessment of the success of supporting public programme in the EU has been done. This paper explains how the lack of a final definition has led to misadapted public policies favouring modal transfer in the EU and how misknowledge of SSS markets has led to the overestimation of the modal shift potential.     

Competition in railway monopolies

The transformation of railways from monopolies to markets open for internal competition is described and explained in a theoretical framework, and a model for the evaluation of the transformation’s impact on efficiency is developed. Using the model in an empirical study of the Swedish railway sector, it is found that external competitive pressure is strong in most supply segments and, focusing on loss of scale advantages, that the transformation will result in significant costs. Comparing the potential for gains by competition against the costs, it is concluded that increased efficiency by internal competition only seems possible to achieve for two train products: domestic combined transport and dedicated trains (both freight services).     

铁路车站站内计轴轨道电路抗干扰方案的探讨

铁路车站站内计轴轨道电路由工务施工造成干扰是普遍存在的问题.通过对铁路车站站内计轴轨道电路几种抗干扰方案的研讨,阐述了各方案的特点,比较得出最优方案,即利用计轴点相邻轨道区段的状态和时间双重条件,对计轴轨道区段内“±1轴”进行冗余设计,以提高站内计轴设备的抗干扰能力,使设备的安全性得到保证.     

Social Capital,Tourism and Regional Development: SPCC as a Basis for Innovation and Sustainability

Traditional views of regional development have focused on economic factors and potential innovation in technical and resource exploitation processes. Similarly, regional tourism development is usually couched in economic terms, such as number of jobs and increasing land values. This approach usually ignores the social and community aspects of tourism development; thus an alternative view argues that the community needs to be factored into our planning and development strategies to balance the traditional economic view. It is argued in this paper that fostering innovation in regional development is much more than a process of community consultation. Rather, what needs to be factored in is SPCC – social, political and cultural capital. This works in both directions; tourism development depends on a level of social, political and cultural capital in order to be a successful regional development tool (even in economic terms) while at the same time tourism development can be undertaken in a way that contributes to SPCC in the region. The paper outlines the key concepts of social capital, political capital and cultural capital. It does so within the context of regional tourism development and the concepts of systems of innovation and sustainable development.     

试述科学发展观的形成历程

从对我党四代领导集体对发展问题的认识进行梳理，在对发展问题认识的继承与创新、调整与深化、把握与总结、完善与丰富等四个方面，就马克思主义中国化的最新理论成果——科学发展观形成的历史过程，进行了简明扼要的综述，以有助于对科学发展观的学习和理解。     

高速铁路网络建设对长江中游城市群旅游效率的影响研究

作为一种新型绿色交通运输方式,高速铁路在推动旅游业实现高质量发展中发挥着重要支撑和保障作用,区域旅游业基于快捷高效的高速铁路网得以快速发展。以长江中游城市群28个地级以上城市为例,通过构建双重差分模型,实证检验长江中游城市群高速铁路网络建设是否显著提高了沿线城市旅游效率。借助引力模型定量分析高速铁路网络建设对沿线城市旅游效率的影响程度。研究表明高速铁路网络建设对提高沿线城市旅游效率的影响作用随时间变化呈逐步增强趋势。高速铁路网络建设引起沿线城市对外经济联系强度每提高1%时,沿线城市旅游效率约提高0.07%~0.16%。     

Fair trade in tourism

Tourism as an industry is increasing rapidly in developing countries. Due to historical inequality in global trading relationships on the basis of ‘core–periphery’ dependency, globalisation and liberalised free trade, mainstream mass tourism reinforces the social and economic disadvantages of southern destinations. The ‘Fair Trade Movement’ has sought to redress unequal trading by promoting fair trade in commodities with small producers in the South, enabling them to take control over the production and marketing process and challenging the power of transnational corporations. This paper examines the feasibility of fair trade in tourism. It explores the obstacles and opportunities that might lead to establishing a definition of fair trade in tourism, incorporating criteria that would be workable and practical for both partners in the South and North. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.