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RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Kir Kuščer & Domen Trobec
School/Work Place : University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Contact : kir.kuscer@ef.uni-lj.si
Year : 2014

The global economic and financial crisis could be seen as old news according to the UNWTO’s data on international tourist arrivals. Europe recorded a solid 5% growth in 2013, and Mediterranean countries performed even better with 6% growth in international tourist arrivals (UNWTO, 2014). However, tourism in Mediterranean countries has been fluctuating in recent years; the growth rate in international tourism arrivals was 8% in 2011 and a modest 2% in 2012 (UNWTO, 2013). Even more troubling is the fact that although the numbers of tourists are rising, their habits (both in leisure and business tourism) have changed during economic slow-down (less expenditure for different services during their stay, travelling closer to home and making reservations online and either at first or last minute (WTTC, 2011; Blanke & Chiesa, 2013; Papatheodorou, Rosselló & Xiao, 2010), which creates serious problems in the tourism industry. Many companies acquired huge debts in the boom period before the crisis (pre-2008), which has weakened them, as has lower tourism expenditure. Although tourism was not affected as much as, for example, international trade or industrial production, due to the fact that destocking did not take place, the recovery might take longer since there is no stock-building process in tourism. Governments will have to acknowledge the huge debt burden resulting from increasing taxes and cutting public spending and reduce it. Moreover, lower expenditure has led to price wars and liquidity problems, and an inability to carry out necessary investments, especially in net working capital (Smeral, 2009).

Debates within the ECB and Euro Area and among globally distinguished scholars, such as Miller and Stieglitz’s (2010) paper over asset bubbles, have revealed that the economies of European Mediterranean countries have had serious struggles due to asset bubbles and structural imbalances in their economies (revealed by the global economic and financial crisis), but they do not specify in detail the impact and nature of these and other more specific effects regarding industry subsectors (including the tourism sector and its subsectors). Tourism being one of the key sectors in Mediterranean countries (UNWTO, 2013), our purpose is to show the differences in performance within the tourism sector and give policymakers an appropriate basis for designing policy tools in order to stimulate the analysed sector. Our goal is to identify the subsectors’ specific characteristics influencing the above-average performance of these subsectors, i.e. identifying and specifying tourism subsector champions based on capital and asset structure.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
294 Think Tank XV The social enterprise as a vehicle to poverty alleviat... file 1836 Jul 27, 2015

Over the last decades, social enterprises have increasingly gained importance in the travel and tourism industry and they are revolutionizing the way business is done. Instead of maximizing profits for external shareholders, a social enterpr...

Author: Sebastian Ferrari & Dagmar Lund-Durlacher 

Year: 2015 

293 Think Tank XV The operational challenges of community-based tourism ... file 12079 Jul 27, 2015

Community-based tourism is increasingly being developed and promoted as a means of reducing poverty in developing countries assisting local communities to meet their needs through the offering of a tourism product. The Swaziland Tourism Auth...

Author: S. E. Lukhele & K. F. Mearns 

Year: 2015 

292 Think Tank XV Environmental Practices and Hotels’ Performance: an em... file 1559 Jul 27, 2015

Firms are nowadays facing growing pressure from governments and environmental institutions to reduce their ecological footprint. While a growing number of empirical studies have examined the impact of green management policies on firms’ fina...

Author: Christelle Cortese & Mondher Sahli 

Year: 2015 

291 Think Tank XV A modified value chainanalysisoftourism development in... file 3106 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism development in a relatively unknown country is faced with various challenges. The difficulty is not only choosing an appropriate tourism development strategy but also managing it in a complex sociocultural, economic and political env...

Author: Sonja Frommenwiler & Péter Varga 

Year: 2015 

OPA: Runner Up Outstanding Paper Award 

290 Think Tank XV Perceptions of local communities participation in rura... file 2831 Jul 27, 2015

In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs, rural communities should be able to participate actively in all aspects of tourism, including planning and management. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the local communit...

Author: Limpho Lekaota & Jarkko Saarined 

Year: 2015 

289 Think Tank XV Rural renewal or requiem? Establishing new creative ve... file 1102 Jul 27, 2015

During the past decades, concern for rural poverty and underdevelopment of the rural communities of Namibia has been central to government development efforts. This has further given rise to several rural development programmes. While, some ...

Author: Erling Kavita 

Year: 2015 

288 Think Tank XV Social Representations of Tourist Selfies: New Challen... file 2813 Jul 27, 2015

A number of recent incidents have focussed media attention on the phenomenon of tourist selfies, described their negative consequences for tourist destinations and identified a number of challenges for tourist site managers. This paper repor...

Author: John Pearce & Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2015 

287 Think Tank XV Why Africans do not visit their national parks: A case... file 1585 Jul 27, 2015

Present-day Western approaches relating to nature and natural resources management assume that humans are independent from the natural world (Pierotti & Wildcat, 2000). Protected areas such as Yellowstone National Park were created with ...

Author: Lesego S. Stone & Gyan P. Nyaupane 

Year: 2015 

286 Think Tank XV Protected areas and community wildlife-based tourism i... file 799 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism planning in protected areas (PAs) entails addressing two partly competing and overlapping goals: preserving heritage and providing access. Resolving potential conflicts between these two goals is particularly challenging at the inter...

Author: MorenTibabo Stone & Gyan P. Nyaupane 

Year: 2015 

285 Think Tank XV Deconstruction of Man-nature Dialogue Nexus: A Critica... file 8812 Jul 27, 2015

The relationship between man and nature dates back to the millennia. The intimacy of man-nature interaction increased with decreasing healthy nature, as man’s insatiable desire to know and control nature as a commodity becomes more dynamical...

Author: Michael Kweku Commeh 

Year: 2015 

284 Think Tank XV Enhancing stakeholders’ participation for sustainable ... file 2091 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism is a fragile industry with multiple stakeholders. Globally, the desire of its stakeholders is to gain more benefits and eliminate negative impacts on resources that support the industry, particularly in protected areas (PAs) such as ...

Author: Richie Wandwi 

Year: 2015 

283 OPA award Active community participation in nature conservation ... file 3547 Jul 27, 2015

This paper provides a conceptual framework of community- based nature conservation and tourism (CBC-T). The following themes are guiding discussions in this study, i.e.: land rights of local communities in and around protected areas; communi...

Author: Jones Muzirambi & Kevin Mearns 

Year: 2015 

OPA: 2015 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

282 Think Tank XV A novel review approach on adventure tourism scholarship file 1563 Jul 24, 2015

As a niche market, adventure tourism has been developing rapidly in many regions and territories, evidenced by increasing number of participants and intensive growth of adventure tourism products (Adventure Travel Trade Association, 2013; T...

Author: Mingming Chen, Deborah Edward, Simon Darcy 

Year: 2015 

281 Think Tank XIV Current Global Initiatives to Address the Sustainabili... file 5075 Jul 07, 2014

A number of ongoing and new initiatives aim at the tourism sector with the intention of improving sustainability within the sector and through tourism in other economic and social activities. Dirk's presentation reflects on UNWTO’s position ...

Author: Dirk Glaesser 

Year: 2014 

280 Think Tank XIV Sustainable tourism, market failures and the challenge... file 10968 Jul 07, 2014

David's presentation outlines the major market failures in tourism production and consumption and questions the changing role of (public sector) governments in market regulation and ‘economic’ development. The presentation focuses specifical...

Author: David G. Simmons 

Year: 2014 

279 Think Tank XIV Exploring the potential of Community Based Ecotourism ... file 5179 Jun 27, 2014

Development in developing countries often results in mass land-use change and subsequent increase in greenhouse gas emission by deforestation or forest degradation. For instance, approximately a-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions was a...

Author: Stephen Wearing, Paul Chatterton, Amy Reggers & Hanna Sakata 

Year: 2014 

278 Think Tank XIV Exploring Policy, Politics and Governance through Stak... file 5283 Jun 27, 2014

This paper looks at the development of an ecotrekking industry on the Kokoda Track and demonstrates how the use of participatory methods in community based tourism can align two different “regimes of truth” (that of the community and of the ...

Author: Stephen Wearing, Paul Chatterton & Amy Reggers 

Year: 2014 

277 Think Tank XIV Bird-watching Routes as Collaborative Stakeholderships... file 11073 Jun 27, 2014

Although there are numerous birding trails with varying levels of success, prior to this study, little research existed as to how birding trails are designed, implemented and managed. Thus, the study posed and answered the following research...

Author: Krisztian Vas 

Year: 2014 

276 Think Tank XIV Can "Slow Travel" Contribute to Sustainable Tourism? file 5791 Jun 27, 2014

Slow travel as a research field has increased in popularity in the last decade. The concept started to gain attention through online communities, and tourism researchers have become interested in the possible benefits that slow travel may ha...

Author: Tina Roenhovde Tiller 

Year: 2014 

275 Think Tank XIV Local Networks as Sustainable Policy Instruments: A Ca... file 4236 Jun 27, 2014

In this case study, a communication network among local hotel managers was examined, first to assess the extent of communication among hotel managers, and second to identify influential members within the network. Communication with respect ...

Author: Karen Irene Thal & Tracy Burkett 

Year: 2014 

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