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Territorial capital, smart tourism specialization and sustainable regional development: Experiences from Europe

Publication . Romão, J.; Neuts, Bait

This study analyses the contribution of territorial sensitive resources related to natural and cultural features (environmental dimension), innovation capabilities and specialization patterns (smart specialization) to regional sustainable development (spatial sustainability). In the context of a fast and continuous expansion of tourism activities, particular attention is given to their impacts. The results of our path model suggest that different patterns of tourism dynamics coexist in European regions and that, for those where this sector assumes larger socio-economic importance, the contribution to the achievement of the "Millennium Goals", as proposed by the United Nations, is relatively poor. Regions particularly endowed in natural resources reveal a weak socio-economic performance, while showing high levels of specialization in tourism, based on large scale and low value-added products and services, suggesting that new approaches to territorial design are required. This also leads to important spatial unbalances, with the most tourism -dependent European regions revealing relatively low levels of regional gross domestic product and high levels of unemployment. Despite their relatively good performance in terms of CO2-emissions, it seems important for those regions' sustainable development to increase the value added in tourism, by reinforcing the linkages with other relevant regional economic sectors. Information and communication technologies can contribute to these achievements, through the integration of knowledge and innovations into the products and services comprising the smart tourism experiences (smart development) and their connections with related sectors (smart specialization). (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2017-10Journal article

Open access

Impacts of innovation, productivity and specialization on tourism competitiveness - a spatial econometric analysis on European regions

Publication . Romão, J.; Nijkamp, Peter

Tourism is clearly a place-based activity, while in many advanced economies it is increasingly becoming a knowledge-based activity, with a high potential for the development of practice- and place-based innovation strategies. This study analyses whether and how regional systems of innovation influence the competiveness of tourism destinations in Europe. Impacts of both traditional production factors (physical and human capital), productivity, specialization and other contextual variables - related to the territorial capital of each region - on regional tourism performance of 237 European regions (NUTS 2) are analysed over a period of 8 years, using advanced techniques for spatial econometric analysis. The results reveal lower levels of productivity in those regions where tourism services are more labour intensive, while regions where education, innovation and productivity demonstrate higher levels are those where gross value added in tourism is less important for the regional economy. Policy implications are discussed, taking into consideration the principles for smart specialisation strategies in European regions and the possibility for cross-border regional cooperation. This work also confirms the research potential of spatial econometric analysis - and in particular spatial autocorrelation techniques - for tourism studies.

2019-06Journal article

Open access

Tourism growth and regional resilience: the "beach disease' and the consequences of the global crisis of 2007

Publication . Romão, João; Guerreiro, J.; Rodrigues, Paulo M. M.

As a consequence of the international financial crisis in 2007, the region of Algarve, where tourism plays an important economic and social role, suffered a decrease in tourism demand, while unemployment increased sharply. Although tourism activities registered a quick recovery, unemployment levels continued to grow. This article examines the impacts of tourism activities on the sectorial structure of the regional economy, using a Bayesian vector autoregressive model. The results reveal that tourism growth did not automatically create the expected positive impacts on the economic performance of the other sectors, as was expressed by the objectives defined in the regional development strategies over the last two decades. The positive impacts of tourism were concentrated in the production of non-tradable goods and the construction sector, leading to a significant reduction of the weight of the tradable sector within the regional economy, similar to a process of deindustrialization described as the Dutch disease'. The decline of construction activities after 2007 has led to a significant increase of regional unemployment, although tourism growth has returned to pre-crisis' levels, revealing the lack of regional resilience.

2016-08Journal article

Restricted access

Tourism, smart specialisation, growth, and resilience

Publication . Romão, J.

This work analyses the implications of tourism dynamics and smart specialisation strategies on growth and socioeconomic resilience of European regions where tourism is a regional priority. By using a panel data model for 2006-2017, phases of growth, recession, and recovery are scrutinised. A convergence process is identified, with higher growth rates for less-developed regions; however, the most developed regions are more resilient. Tourism demand is positively correlated with growth and resilience but a high share of tourism within regional employment has negative impacts on both. Specialisation patterns combining tourism with agriculture have positive effects in both cases. Diversification strategies including unrelated sectors contribute to increased resilience in these regions, and a prioritisation of construction reduces regional resilience.

2020Journal article

Open access