The economic and social value of spa tourism: The case of balneotherapy in Maresme, Spain
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Torres-Prunonosa J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8803250 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Nature-based tourism (NBT) is vulnerable to a rapid increase in visitors because natural resources are often open access. Market failure caused by over-exploitation of natural resources is an example of social dilemmas in common-pool resource systems. Game theory, which describes people's decision making under conflicts, has been applied to the analysis of social dilemmas in NBT. However, previous studies use non-cooperative games assuming individualistic players and discuss the emergence of social dilemmas only in a limited situation. Here, we demonstrate, by developing a two-player non-cooperative game of wildlife viewing, that the traditional game-theoretic approach fails to find social dilemmas. By analysing the competition between tour operators (players) with different social value orientations (SVOs), we found that concentration of tours becomes a Pareto-inefficient Nash equilibrium (PINE) when both players are competitive. Whether the wildlife-viewing market is a Prisoner's dilemma depends on players' SVOs. Furthermore, we found that fair punishment on competitive players promotes rather than suppresses the emergence of PINE. Our results suggest that the diversity of SVOs is an essential factor in understanding social dilemmas in NBT.
| S-EPMC7048808 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Loyalty is important in the tourism sector since tourists are the key to returning to a destination or recommending it, which is a determining factor in the management of tourist sites. The tourism of Mosques, is a contextualized tourism within religious and cultural tourism. This research aims to analyze the loyalty of tourists of Islamic origin in the Cathedral Mosque of Cordoba. Unlike previous studies, this research adopts a comprehensive approach by considering cultural factors in the analysis of loyalty of Islamic tourists in mosque tourism. The methodology used in this study was a structural equation model with a partial least squares (PLS) analysis. The sample is made up of 262 tourists of Islamic origin at Cordoba Cathedral Mosque. This model does not correspond to factors identified by the previous literature, which adopts an religious perspective of Islamic tourists in mosque tourism. The methodology used in this study was a structural equation model with a partial least squares (PLS) analysis. The sample is made up of 262 tourists of Islamic origin in Cordoba Cathedral Mosque. This model does not correspond to factors identified by the previous literature, which adopts an religious perspective.
| S-EPMC7707557 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study examines the influence of domestic tourism on economic vulnerability index (EVI). Domestic tourism spending has a significant effect in reducing EVI. These results are consistent with two sub-indices of EVI (shock index and exposure index). Interestingly, it is found that: (i) this impact is consistent in low- and lower-middle-income countries, while domestic tourism has a non-significantly effect in upper-middle and high-income countries of increasing EVI; (ii) these results are consistent in the long-run; and (iii) the impact of domestic tourism is consistent in both the 2002-2007 and 2008-2012 periods, but is statistically non-significant in the 2013-2017 period. Notably, we find that domestic tourism spending has a U-shape effect on EVI; while international tourism has an increasing effect.
| S-EPMC7573673 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundCommunity pharmacies are major contributors to health care systems across the world. Several studies have been conducted to evaluate community pharmacies services in health care. The purpose of this study was to estimate the social and economic benefits of current and potential future community pharmacies services provided by pharmacists in health care in Portugal.MethodsThe social and economic value of community pharmacies services was estimated through a decision-model. Model inputs included effectiveness data, quality of life (QoL) and health resource consumption, obtained though literature review and adapted to Portuguese reality by an expert panel. The estimated economic value was the result of non-remunerated pharmaceutical services plus health resource consumption potentially avoided. Social and economic value of community pharmacies services derives from the comparison of two scenarios: "with service" versus "without service".ResultsIt is estimated that current community pharmacies services in Portugal provide a gain in QoL of 8.3% and an economic value of 879.6 million euros (M€), including 342.1 M€ in non-remunerated pharmaceutical services and 448.1 M€ in avoided expense with health resource consumption. Potential future community pharmacies services may provide an additional increase of 6.9% in QoL and be associated with an economic value of 144.8 M€: 120.3 M€ in non-remunerated services and 24.5 M€ in potential savings with health resource consumption.ConclusionsCommunity pharmacies services provide considerable benefit in QoL and economic value. An increase range of services including a greater integration in primary and secondary care, among other transversal services, may add further social and economic value to the society.
| S-EPMC5576248 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The present study uses a review of the literature and the views of tourism and management professors and experts in order to the identification of organizational intelligence elements in tourism management (STO) for the first time. The census method was used to determine the research sample and the Delphi technique was used to design the questionnaire. Construct divergence was then used to determine the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The final results indicated that providing e-services for tourists had the greatest impact on the development of STO (loading factor: 0.677). Moreover, New Tourism Marketing Methods (NTMM) had the least effect on the development of STO (loading factor: 0.431). Overall, the most important achievement of the present research is introducing the concept of STO in tourism management.
| S-EPMC6579854 | biostudies-other
Project description:In recent years, gastronomy has become a fundamental motivation to travel. Learning how to prepare gastronomic dishes and about the raw materials that compose them has attracted increasing numbers of tourists. In Andalusia (region of southern Spain), there are many quality products endorsed by Protected Designations of Origin, around which gastronomic routes have been created, some visited often (e.g., wine) and others remaining unknown (e.g., ham and oil). This study analyses the profile of gastronomic tourists in Andalusia to understand their motivations and estimates the demand for gastronomic tourism using seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models. The results obtained indicate that the gastronomic tourist in Andalusia is very satisfied with the places he/she visits and the gastronomy he/she savours. However, the demand for this tourist sector is very low and heterogeneous; while wine tourism is well established, tourism focusing on certain products, such as olive oil or ham, is practically non-existent. To obtain a homogeneous demand, synergies or pairings should be created between food products, e.g., wine-ham, oil-ham, etc., to attract a greater number of tourists and distinguish Andalusia as a gastronomic holiday destination.
| S-EPMC7864416 | biostudies-literature
Project description:As manta rays face increased threats from targeted and bycatch fisheries, manta ray watching tourism, if managed properly, may present an attractive economic alternative to consumptive use of these species. Both species in the genus Manta (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as species Vulnerable to extinction in the wild, and are considered unsustainable as fisheries resources due to their conservative life history characteristics, which considerably reduce their ability to recover population numbers when depleted. Utilising dive operator surveys, Internet research, and a literature review, this study provides the first global estimate of the direct economic impact of manta ray watching tourism and examines the potential socio-economic benefits of non-consumptive manta ray watching operations relative to consumptive use of manta rays as a fishery resource. In the 23 countries in which manta ray watching operations meeting our criteria were identified, we estimated direct revenue to dive operators from manta ray dives and snorkels at over US$73 million annually and direct economic impact, including associated tourism expenditures, of US$140 million annually. Ten countries account for almost 93% of the global revenue estimate, specifically Japan, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mozambique, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, United States, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In many of the areas where directed fisheries for manta rays are known to occur, these activities overlap with manta ray tourism sites or the migratory range of the mantas on which these sites depend, and are likely to be unsustainable and detrimental to manta ray watching tourism.
| S-EPMC3669133 | biostudies-literature
Project description:After the economic liberalization in mid-2000, Tanzania has assumed that tourism growth spars economic growth due to the consistent significant contribution of tourism sector to the country's annual income. However, there are limited empirical studies that investigated tourism-economic growth relationship in Tanzania. This study aims to investigate an empirical insight into the actual nature of tourism-economic growth in Tanzania by applying the Granger causality and Wald test methods where annual time series data on international tourism receipt, real Gross Domestic Product, and real effective exchange rate over the period 1989-2018 are used. Further, the Impulse Response Function approach is utilized to provide insight into the qualitative nature of the relationships and the length of time necessary for the causal effect to take place. The findings confirm a unidirectional causality from tourism development to economic growth. The study concludes that Tanzania ought to focus on economic strategies that encourage sustainable tourism development as a feasible source of economic growth.
| S-EPMC8121963 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The aim of this study was to determine the economic burden and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and their caregivers in Spain.This was a cross-sectional and retrospective study of patients diagnosed with SMA in Spain. We adopted a bottom up, prevalence approach design to study patients with SMA. The patient's caregivers completed an anonymous questionnaire regarding their socio-demographic characteristics, use of healthcare services and non-healthcare services. Costs were estimated from a societal perspective (including healthcare costs and non-healthcare costs), and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed using the EQ-5D questionnaire. The main caregivers also answered a questionnaire on their characteristics and on their HRQOL.A total of 81 caregivers of patients with different subtypes of SMA completed the questionnaire. Based on the reference unitary prices for 2014, the average annual costs per patient were € 33,721. Direct healthcare costs were € 10,882 (representing around 32.3% of the total cost) and the direct non-healthcare costs were € 22,839 (67.7% of the total cost). The mean EQ-5D social tariff score for patients was 0.16, and the mean score of the EQ-5D visual analogue scale was 54. The mean EQ-5D social tariff score for caregivers was 0.49 and their mean score on the EQ-5D visual analogue scale was 69.The results highlight the burden that SMA has in terms of costs and decreased HRQOL, not only for patients but also for their caregivers. In particular, the substantial social/economic burden is mostly attributable to the high direct non-healthcare costs.
| S-EPMC5563035 | biostudies-other
Project description:Ten years after completion of the Human Genome Project, progress towards making "personalized medicine" a reality has been slower than expected. The reason is twofold. Firstly, the science is more difficult than expected. Secondly, limited progress has been made in aligning economic incentives to invest in diagnostics. This paper develops nine case studies of "success" where diagnostic tests are bringing personalized medicine into clinical practice with health and economic impact for patients, healthcare systems, and manufacturers. We focus on the availability of evidence for clinical utility, which is important not only for clinicians but also for payers and budget holders. We find that demonstrating diagnostic clinical utility and the development of economic evidence is currently feasible (i) through drug-diagnostic co-development, and (ii) when the research is sponsored by payers and public bodies. It is less clear whether the diagnostic industry can routinely undertake the work necessary to provide evidence as to the clinical utility and economic value of its products. It would be good public policy to increase the economic incentives to produce evidence of clinical utility: otherwise, opportunities to generate value from personalized medicine-in terms of both cost savings and health gains-may be lost.
| S-EPMC4251388 | biostudies-other