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In late 2011, the Spanish terrorist organization ETA announced the end of armed violence after more than forty years of illegal activity. While the existing literature has already established the negative impact of terrorist actions on international tourism in a particular region, this paper aims to determine whether ETA’s final ceasefire and definitive dissolution had a positive impact on domestic tourism in Basque Country. To that end, a directed gravity model is estimated over a panel data-set of 699 domestic tourist flows between the Spanish regions from 2008 to 2013. Results suggest that the negative impact on visitor flows was localized in the Basque Country. Also, regardless of a permanent ceasefire announced in 2010, only the 2011 ‘definitive cessation of violence’ had an immediate significant impact on the number of visitors to the Basque Country. These results complement the scarce literature on post-conflict tourism analysis and may have implications for regional authorities in affected regions in their efforts to rebuild their destination brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish Federation of Municipalities has, particularly since 2008, been vocal about a "chronic deficit" situation caused by high public expenditures in tourist areas. Within this context, new strategies to increase revenues have been proposed, including the introduction of tourist taxes. This paper contributes to this debate by determining if tourism activity actually has a negative impact on local finances in Spain. To that end, a comparative analysis of budget structures between tourism-intensive and non-tourism-intensive municipalities is undertaken using data from more than 3200 local corporations for the years 2001-2010. The determinants of expenditures, revenues and deficit per capita are identified using a linear regression. The results indicate a direct relationship between tourism intensity and local deficits only in the smallest and largest municipalities, while a beneficial effect is actually seen in the remainder of the sample. In view of this evidence, we recommend revising the existing regulations to allow for municipalities below 20,000 residents to be officially recognized as "tourist municipalities" so that they can benefit from that status. In addition, the option of introducing new tourist taxes should be more restricted in scope and depend upon further evidence of possible cost inefficiency in the affected municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There exists a common belief among researchers and regional policy makers that the actual central system of Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) should be changed to one more decentralized where airport managers could have more autonomy. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the efficiency of the Spanish airports using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation to estimate a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model. Our results show the existence of a significant level of inefficiency in airport operations. Additionally, we provide efficient marginal cost estimates for each airport which also cast some doubts about the current pricing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we estimate alternative specifications of the Spanish airports’ cost function with the objective to provide a comparative analysis on several technological features such as output-specific marginal costs, economies of scale, and the Allen elasticities of substitution. We found evidence of significant and unexhausted scale economies as well as technological development in the Spanish airport industry. The results suggest that traffic consolidation in multi-airport areas such as the Basque Country or Catalonia will result in lower costs for the public operator. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]