Tourism economics development beyond the COVID-19 crisis: The eight International Association for Tourism Economics (IATE) conference

This special issue gathers a selection of papers presented during the 8th edition of the biannual conference of the International Association for Tourism Economics (IATE). Jointly organized by three French universities (Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France, and Université de Corse Pasquale Paoli), the conference took place on the campus of the University of Perpignan between June 29th and July 1st, 2022. IATE was established in 2007 to promote the exchange and development of knowledge in tourism economics and is today the leading association in the field. After its first edition hosted by the University of the Balearic Islands (2007), the conference has been organized in various countries: Chiang Mai University (Thailand, 2009), Bournemouth University (UK, 2011), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia, 2013), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hong Kong SAR, China, 2015), University of Bologna (Italy, 2017), and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina, 2019).

The conference occurred in France for the first time due to the collaboration of a team of researchers in tourism economics from three different institutions who have been involved in the association’s development since its inception. Tourism Economics and the STR Share Center sponsored the conference.

Selected by the scientific committee from over 150 submissions, 116 papers were presented during the 35 parallel sessions of the event. A wide variety of topics were discussed, ranging from “Tourism and COVID-19” to “Economics of short-term rental” and “Destination competitiveness”.

Three keynote speakers enriched the conference program. Albert Assaf (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA) proposed an agenda for adopting best practices in quantitative research in the field of tourism economics, whereas Céline Kauffmann from OECD drew perspectives on the sustainable recovery of tourism. Egon Smeral (Modul University Vienna, Austria) discussed the socio-economic resilience to shocks in the tourism sector.

A panel discussion involving Steve Hood (STR), Nec Jus (WTTC), and Celine Kauffmann (OECD) on the challenges for the tourism industry in the aftermath of COVID-19 was organized between parallel sessions. In addition, four students had the opportunity to present their work to a panel composed of members of the IATE board and attendees of the main conference during the IATE PhD workshop that took place on June 28th.

This special edition compiles papers that have been revised according to the feedback received during the conference, adhering meticulously to the rigorous submission guidelines of Tourism Economics. In total, 14 manuscripts underwent a thorough double-blind review process involving multiple iterations. The eight papers that successfully navigated through all stages and garnered a unanimous recommendation for full acceptance from both reviewers and editors are published in this special issue.

Vives and Ostrovskaya (2023) use the hedonic pricing method, already widely used in the literature, in an original way. Their study focuses on 11 hotels located in the Majorca region (Spain) and belonging to the same chain, using a large-scale database, i.e., over a long period (2012–2020). The goal is to understand why, all other things being equal, variations in price and RevPAR occur. As a result, they assess the effect of a commercial strategy, notably by segmenting customers according to different factors (time distance between stay and booking, distribution mode, family composition, age, etc.) on hotel performance across different periods. Moreover, this approach ultimately enables them to estimate repeaters’ probabilities, which is original and very interesting for refining managerial strategies.

Demydyuk and Carlbäck (2023) take a similar approach to study hotel management strategy, but with a more extensive scope across 6 US hotel chains over a long period (2004–2020). However, this time, the authors analyse the interactions between prices, sales levels, and customer satisfaction on long-term financial performance. Using a conceptual model, they test 9 hypotheses, broken down into two parts. From the results, it is clear that customer satisfaction is the most important driver of the long-term financial performance of the hotel chains studied.

Angelini et al. (2023) analyse the impact of climatic conditions on hotel prices. More specifically, Angelini et al. (2023) investigate the resilience of hotels in Venice in the event of a High Tide Alert. To do so, they use price data observed on the Booking. com platform between November and December 2019 when water levels were particularly high in Venice (an episode known as Acqua Alta). Using a database of over 20,000 observations and a regression discontinuity design approach, their results show that in the case of an alert following a water level exceeding the 110 cm threshold, there is a highly significant effect on hotel prices in Venice, meaning that these alerts send a very clear negative signal through hotel prices, translating into a drop in hotel bookings.

Biardeau and Sahli (2024) analyse the effect of natural disasters on tourism, but this time on a much larger scale. The authors estimate a polynomial multivariate linear regression model and a flexible binned regression model across a panel comprising tourist arrivals and receipts from 150 countries from 1995 to 2019. Depending on the type of disaster and the intensity in terms of fatalities, they succeed in estimating different impacts. Surprisingly, earthquakes have an insignificant impact, unlike other disasters (floods, storms, extreme temperatures, fires, epidemics, etc.). In this way, while natural disasters are set to increase in magnitude with climate change, the authors provide guidance anticipating the impact on tourism.

Arnanz et al. (2023) analyse the effects of disruptive crises focusing on residents and the dichotomy between the health and economic risks in the tourism context. Specifically, they investigate the Bangkok residents’ perceptions toward tourism as affected by COVID-19, and consider residents' characteristics, perceptions on specific origins, and the development of alternative tourism activities and segments. The Social Exchange Theory-based conceptual framework is proposed that can be of benefit to other destinations in similar endeavors. The authors opt for convenience sampling, with 420 questionnaires collected in September and October of 2020. Overall, the results show that residents are aware of the potential trade-off between economic prosperity and health concerns. Thai residents are more concerned about health considerations than foreigners residing in Bangkok.

Duro et al. (2023) highlight the importance of risk in tourism destination competitiveness. This study underlines the fact that many destinations traditionally classified as highly competitive have been majorly impacted by the pandemic. The authors argue that the concept of risk has been understated in previous attempts of competitiveness assessment, and therefore propose a risk-adjusted tourism and travel competitiveness index. This is demonstrated on the example of OECD and partner countries. Their results show that country rankings are largely affected by the explicit inclusion of risk in the competitiveness calculations. As such, the study serves as an important call for obtaining richer competitiveness measures.

The study by Boto-García and Baños Pino (2023) delves into the economics of second-home tourism and potential expenditure reallocation effects from accommodation savings. Specifically, the authors examine the differences in expenditure at destination between second home and traditional tourists who stay at market accommodations in three categories (recreational activities, bars and restaurants, and other items including purchases at supermarkets and goods for personal care). Craggit-type regressions are estimated using survey microdata for approximately 37,000 domestic tourists in Spain traveling in the summer periods of 2017, 2018, and 2019. The authors find no evidence of expenditure reallocation effects at destination. Furthermore, their findings reveal that those staying at second homes spend less money in total terms and behave closer to residents than to tourists.

Another study with the focus on Spain is the contribution by Marfil-Cotilla et al. (2023). The authors investigate the gender wage gap across the wage distribution in the tourism industry from a sectoral perspective (hospitality, travel agencies, transportation, and complementary services). Using matched employer-employee data for 2018, different wage decompositions across the wage distribution based on unconditional quantile regressions are proposed. Their findings show that, except for transportation, gender wage discrimination increases as wages increase. The study also carries policy implications, given that it shows that the origin of gender discrimination differs by sector.