Tourism and territorial differentiation: an analysis of the competitiveness and sustainability of tourism

Romão, João Fernando Guerreiro

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/8982

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Authors

Romão, João Fernando Guerreiro

Advisor(s)

Rodrigues, P. M. M.

Guerreiro, João

Abstract(s)

The main objective of this work is to identify whether the regions where elements of attractiveness related to heritage and natural conditions are successfully incorporated in the tourism supply through innovative products and services that contribute to their differentiation are able to sustain their levels of attractiveness. A regional tourism demand function is developed, based on a panel data model, where determinants related to innovation and to the usage of natural and cultural assets in tourism supply are combined with other factors generally related to tourism activities, in order to explain the attractiveness of tourism destinations in southwest Europe, considering 67 regions from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. In order to distinguish different conditions for regional tourism development, the model includes two dummy variables, related to the geographical position of each region and to the position of each region in the life cycle of tourism development. This work includes a literature review on the main economic aspects and concepts related to tourism activities, regional tourism systems, regional innovation systems, differentiation of tourism destinations based on cultural and natural resources, competitiveness and sustainability of tourism. The large quantity of data related to the evolution of tourism in the period between 2003 and 2008 allows the characterization and discussion of the processes of tourism development in the regions taken into consideration. The most important conclusion arising from this study is that the factors of competitiveness related to the differentiation (innovation) and sustainability (natural and cultural resources) of tourism destinations taken in consideration have a clear positive impact on their competitiveness. A positive statistical relation between the efforts on innovation and the regional tourism attractiveness suggests that regions with more developed innovation networks are using this competitive advantage in order to create innovative tourism products and services that reinforce regional attractiveness, showing that the conditions for innovation in tourism activities play an important role on the attractiveness of tourism destinations of southwest Europe: local specific natural and cultural resources are used as core elements of tourism attractiveness, contributing to the differentiation of tourism destinations. As a general tendency, south-western European regions are integrating these specific characteristics of their territories in order to differentiate their tourism products, contributing to the achievement of “status” areas and for a competition based rather on differentiation than on cost leadership. Similarly, it is possible to conclude that these regions tend to compete on the basis of monopolistic competition.