Measuring Tourism Specializationa composite indicator for the Spanish regions

Resumo

Tourism sector is playing an important role in the development of a region, contributing to the economy growth and job creation. Despite of the actual crisis, Tourism activities continues to growth in the last year (UNWTO 2011). Also, Spain maintains in the better positions of the world ranking. Furthermore, Tourism activities generate around 10% of GPD and represents 11.5% of total workers of the Spanish Economy in 2011. Nevertheless, this is not true for all the Spanish Regions. There are regional differences in the number of tourist arrivals, level and quality of employment, number of open Hotels, amenities, etc. Consequently, it is necessary to identify the degree of tourism specialization of each reagion in order to have a more accurately measure of its economic measurement. The main purpose of this paper is to analyses the tourism specialization in the Spanish Provinces. In general previous literature supports the idea that tourism enhances economic growth (Neves & MaÁas 2008). We are able to define Tourism specialization from very different perspectives, for example, tourist arrivals, GPD or labour in tourism industries. For that reason, it is essential to review the previous literature and clarify which indicators are the best ones to measure tourism specialization. In order to measure tourism specialization from a wide point of view we account for both demand and supply side variables for tourism sector. Such factors may concern the quality and the capability of a destination to attract visitors. Moreover, we have included amenities variables referred to natural places, recreational sites and climate. We developed principal component analysis (PCA) in order to summarize the information provided by the different measures. Besides the PCA allow us to rank Spanish provinces according its degree of tourism specialization. It is essential to understand the relationship between tourism characteristics, amenities and its economic impacts for public policies and tourism managing.