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The search for sustainable alternative food sources has led to the expansion of aquaculture, with the proliferation of marine farms in more and more places, some of them very touristic. The installation of these farms in the waters of consolidated Sun and Beach tourist destinations represents a planning challenge, which requires consideration of the potential environmental and economic impacts of those activities on tourism attractions. This article critically analyzes the implementation of marine farms in the Costa Blanca (Alicante), one of the most consolidated Sun and Beach tourist destinations in the Mediterranean. The case study shows that the environmental impact studies and other documentation accompanying these projects do not include tourism aspects, which represents a deficiency that jeopardizes the economic and social sustainability of the projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, policymakers worked to counteract the adverse effects of tourism on destinations, such as the problems of sustainability, wealth distribution or overtourism, among many other external issues. The answer seems to come from the so-called 'intelligence' in the destinations, that is, a necessary renewal to avoid losing competitiveness. In this research, we work on the hypothesis that smart or intelligent solutions applied in Spanish tourist destinations are having positive effects on their competitiveness. Hence, we apply a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) model to address tourism smartness by taking two concrete strategies that are continuously repeated in the literature, that is the promotion of accessibility and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers generally accept that satisfaction is a determinant of tourist expenditure in destinations. This article explores the relationship between satisfaction and tourist expenditure in Calp, a consolidated 'sun and beach' tourist destination located on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline. Using survey data and structural equation modelling, the main result indicates that, in general, after controlling for relevant (socio-economic, socio-demographic and trip characteristics) variables, there is a weak relationship between satisfaction and expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different tourism development models have different implications in terms of their economic, social and environmental impact. This article analyses the sustainability of tourism development models and, specifically, the extent to which private vehicles are used in view of the urban configuration arising from the implementation of either a more intensive model (holiday) or a more extensive one (residential). To do this, the degree of motorization has been analysed in a sample of tourist destinations on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. The results obtained indicate that residential destinations uses more intensively the private vehicles than holiday ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the economic performance of holiday and residential tourism destinations in Spain, as measured by the level of retail activity, from a quantitative perspective. Differences between destinations are explored. A positive association between the economic development of destinations and their retail index was expected. However, no significant differences were found between residential/second-home tourism and holiday/leisure tourism destinations. The results obtained contradict the conventional assumptions that holiday destinations perform better economically than residential ones due to a higher level of tourist spending of people accommodated in hotels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effects of the recent Arab uprisings on tourism destinations located along the Mediterranean coastline. It uses time-series analysis to model international tourist arrivals. First, autoregressive integrated moving average models are estimated for the period 1980-2009 and predicted for 2010-2014 to establish suitable country controls. Second, Bayesian structural time-series models - designed primarily to determine causal impacts in on-line marketing campaigns - are used to establish the effects of the events in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Spain and Greece. The main conclusion is that the models clearly capture the negative impact of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and their positive impacts on Morocco and Turkey. However, the effects on Spain and Greece are less clear and depend crucially on the set of controls used in the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how the slowdown in the real estate market during the most recent economic and financial crisis has affected residential tourism destinations on the Spanish coast. The afore-mentioned crisis, which gave rise to a standstill in residential activity, coincided with the turbulences experienced in the competing destinations of Northern Africa, which brought about a record number of international tourist arrivals to Spain. The resulting situation enables us to explore the future scenario of all the Spanish destinations that, due to the depletion of available land, are reaching their maximum levels of urban growth. Examining the case of Calpe, a destination which is representative of the Spanish Mediterranean, the study analyses whether the foreseeable dynamics for the future are conceptualized in the favourable terms that characterize “sustainable development” or, on the contrary, exhibit negative implications which the classic economists refer to as the “steady state”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the application of the cluster concept to tourist destinations using Benidorm as a case study. A questionnaire was administered to tourism firms based in Benidorm in order to determine whether this destination currently constitutes a tourism cluster or whether it possesses the ideal characteristics to become a cluster with the private agents' collaboration, that is, whether it is a potential cluster. The results obtained from this research indicate that Benidorm's success is not derived from the presence of a cluster due to a series of elements that prevent its existence. In this destination there is a need to strengthen cooperation between public and private agents (especially in those areas that determine the competitive advantage of the destination) and to design a strategy based on shared goals. Both of these elements are fundamental for the characterisation of a cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]