Essays on tourism in the European Union

Laburpena

This thesis is dedicated to the study of international tourism in the European Union (EU). It consists of three chapters with different methodological approaches, yet they are interconnected by the common goal of contributing to the economic knowledge of international tourism in the EU. The relevance of the travel and tourism sector within the EU, the diversity of its countries, differences in their tourism outcomes, and the impact of recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia support the interest of this research. The first chapter examines the concentration of tourism in EU countries during the period 2000-2021. Given that the member states exhibit diverse characteristics from geographical, economic, and political perspectives, as well as different moments of accession and levels of commitment to EU agreements, the study explores how these factors may have influenced the spatial concentration of international tourism and its temporal evolution. We propose the use of the Theil inequality index and its additive decomposition for the analysis of the contribution to tourism concentration of different explanatory factors. The study confirms the presence of high tourism concentration in specific EU countries, with a slight decrease over time. Among the explanatory factors, geographical location stands out, followed by commitment to European agreements such as the adoption of the euro and participation in the Schengen Area. The second chapter introduces a dynamic-spatial model that investigates the agglomeration and dispersion forces responsible for the long-term distribution of international tourism between two similar competing destinations. It is a model that considers the spatial dimension in the movements of tourists and tourism businesses, bearing similarities to the Footloose Capital model (Martin and Rogers, 1995; Baldwin et al., 2003) and the Core-Periphery model (Krugman, 1991). We find that the economies of scale in the tourism industry and the price index elasticity of the utility for tourists are key parameters for the long-run equilibrium. If economies of scale and the price sensitivity of tourists are high, then tourism will be agglomerated at one destination. Economies of scale and price elasticity work in favour of agglomeration giving rise to the overtourism. The model can be used to study the behaviour of tourists and firms when applying different policies. Thus, in this chapter we use it to show the potential impact of both the restrictions imposed during the recent pandemic and those resulting from the conflict in Ukraine on the distribution of tourism among competing destinations. Three cases related to EU countries are examined. The third chapter analyses conversations about tourism on the Twitter/X platform in Spain and the United Kingdom during the last four summers (2019-2022). The objective is to determine potential changes in opinions about tourism during a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. To do this, Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling are employed. The data reveals a higher volume of conversations among Spaniards, highlighting the sector's importance in Spain. The study indicates that 2020 was characterized by a general deterioration in the tone of conversations, though it appears to have improved in Spain by 2022. In 2020, the economy, security, and protection were prominent themes, although their prevalence has decreased since then. Economic concerns continue to significantly influence the overall tone of conversations, that is deteriorating in the United Kingdom and improving in Spain. Sustainability and local growth, which were secondary topics in 2020, have nearly returned to levels like those of 2019 in 2022.