Assessing advertising in a hierarchical decision model

Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget retrenchment for tourism marketing, especially for advertising. This study evaluates a three-stage model using Random Coefficient Logit (RCL) approach which controls for correlations between different non-independent alternatives and considers heterogeneity within individual’s responses to advertising. The results of this study indicate that the proposed RCL model results in a significantly better fit as compared to traditional logit models, and indicates that tourism advertising significantly influences tourist decisions with several variables (age, income, distance and Internet access) moderating these decisions differently depending on decision stage and product type. These findings suggest that this approach provides a better foundation for assessing, and in turn, designing more effective advertising campaigns.

Competences in Masters in Tourism Management and Planning

Presentación sobre las competencias del Máster en Dirección y Planificación del Turismo realizada en el marco de un proyecto TEMPUS.

The role of authenticity in tourism planning: empirical findings from southeast Spain

Tourism is the main economic activity in many towns in the province of Alicante in southeast Spain and has turned this area into a paradigmatic example of mass tourism on the Mediterranean coast. Since the 1960s, the province's coastal towns have opted for a development model centred on what is known as 'residential tourism' or 'second-home tourism', with few exceptions, such as Benidorm. We wish to put forward the argument that the main social agents in the tourism sector have not perceived the 'search for authenticity' as a factor that may attract tourists to this area. To this end, we will start by reviewing critically the theoretical discourse about the role played by authenticity in the motivation of tourists. Then we will discuss some of the results obtained from empirical, qualitative research that included 37 in-depth interviews. As a guide for our empirical research, we use a model based on the stakeholder theory. The epistemological difficulties faced by researchers do not justify certain critical arguments that try to highlight the impossibility of operationalising essential concepts and approaches such as that of authenticity. Therefore, it is necessary that empirical research continues to delve into the sociological keys that determine the 'search for authenticity' in the tourists' experience.

The evolution of gender inequality in tourism employment in Spain

Evolución de la desigualdad por género del empleo turístico en España. Si bien la inversión en capital laboral femenino en la industria turística ha aumentado en los últimos años y parece que la discriminación en el acceso a puestos directivos ha descendido, se siguen produciendo diferentes situaciones de desigualdad. La mujer mantiene un salario por debajo del hombre y han aparecido nuevas formas de segregación ocupacional entre hombres y mujeres e incluso entre las propias mujeres: la división entre trabajo a tiempo parcial y completo es un buen ejemplo de este proceso. La hipótesis que se plantea este trabajo es que esa combinación entre tiempo de trabajo remunerado (ámbito público) y no remunerado (ámbito privado, doméstico) es un obstáculo que provoca el acceso de los varones a empleos hasta ahora "femeninos"; así mismo, se observará la calidad del empleo turístico desde la perspectiva de género.

Research in Tourism Course Presentation

Research in Tourism is an optional course that is taught during the second semester of the fourth year of the Undergraduate Degree in Sociology. It is directly linked to Sociology of Tourism. It is held in English.

A Sociocybernetics Data Analysis Using Causality in Tourism Networks

The aim of this paper is to propose a mathematical model to determine invariant sets, set covering, orbits and, in particular, attractors in the set of tourism variables. Analysis was carried out based on a pre-designed algorithm and applying our interpretation of chaos theory developed in the context of General Systems Theory. This article sets out the causal relationships associated with tourist flows in order to enable the formulation of appropriate strategies. Our results can be applied to numerous cases. For example, in the analysis of tourist flows, these findings can be used to determine whether the behaviour of certain groups affects that of other groups and to analyse tourist behaviour in terms of the most relevant variables. Unlike statistical analyses that merely provide information on current data, our method uses orbit analysis to forecast, if attractors are found, the behaviour of tourist variables in the immediate future.

Quality of pharmaceutical advertising and gender bias in medical journals (1998-2008): a review of the scientific literature

Objective: To review the scientific literature on pharmaceutical advertising aimed at health professionals in order to determine whether gender bias has decreased and the quality of information in pharmaceutical advertising has improved over time. Methods: We performed a content analysis of original articles dealing with medical drug promotion (1998-2008), according to quality criteria such as (a) the number, validity and accessibility of bibliographic references provided in pharmaceutical advertising and (b) the extent to which gender representations were consistent with the prevalence of the diseases. Databases: PUBMED, Medline, Scopus, Sociological Abstract, Eric and LILACS. Results: We reviewed 31 articles that analyzed advertising in medical journals from 1975-2005 and were published between 1998 and 2008. We found that the number of references used to support pharmaceutical advertising claims increased from 1975 but that 50% of these references were not valid. There was a tendency to depict men in paid productive roles, while women appeared inside the home or in non-occupational social contexts. Advertisements for psychotropic and cardiovascular drugs overrepresented women and men respectively. Conclusions: The use of bibliographic references increased between 1998 and 2008. However, representation of traditional male-female roles was similar in 1975 and 2005. Pharmaceutical advertisements may contribute to reinforcing the perception that certain diseases are associated with the most frequently portrayed sex.

Individual returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector during the economic crisis

This paper analyses individual returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector. The results, which are robust to different specifications of Mincer earnings regressions, show that the earnings returns to schooling for tourism workers are only half those for all other sectors, and that the difference in returns between these two groups has increased significantly during the economic crisis. This has happened at a time when the earnings range between those with lower and higher qualifications has narrowed in tourism while it has remained stable in other sectors, and when tourism has been capable of retaining most of its workforce while the rest of the economy has experienced a sharp decrease in employment.

Economic crisis and tourism competitiveness in Spain: permanent effects or transitory shocks?

This paper considers the influence of business cycles and economic crises on Spain's tourism competitiveness. This competitiveness is measured by its share in world tourism. Analysing the presence of unit roots in the market share series from 1958 to 2010, the permanent effects of economic crises on competitiveness are evaluated. The evidence from standard linear unit root tests indicates that crises on Spanish market shares are highly persistent. When we account for endogenously determined structural breaks, we obtain greater support for stationarity, but breakpoints are identified with major economic crises. Therefore the main conclusion obtained is that the effects of the economic shocks are not neutral on competitiveness, with the negative effects being more persistent in highly intensive crises. These crises reinforce a natural downward trend of the Spanish world tourism market share caused by the natural emergence of new competing destinations and by the maturity of the Spain's principal tourism product.

Differentiated effect of advertising: Joint vs. separate consumption

In a context of intense competition, cooperative advertising between firms is critical. Accordingly, the objective of this article is to analyze the potential differentiated effect of advertising on two basic consumption patterns: individual products (i.e. hotel, restaurant) vs. bundle (i.e. hotel + restaurant). This research adds to the extant literature in that, for the first time, this potential differentiated effect is examined through a hierarchical modelling framework that reflects the way people make their decisions: first, they decide whether to visit or not a region; second, whether to purchase an advertised product in that region; and third, whether to buy products together or separately at the region. The empirical analysis, applied to a sample of 11,288 individuals, shows that the influence of advertising is positive for the decisions to visit and to purchase; however, when it comes to the joint or separate consumption, advertising has a differentiated effect: its impact is much greater on the joint alternative (“hotel + restaurant”) than the separate options (“hotel” and “restaurant”). Also, the variable distance moderates the advertising effect.

Exploring the relationship between educational mismatch, earnings and job satisfaction in the tourism industry

This article analyses the interrelationship between educational mismatch, wages and job satisfaction in the Spanish tourism sector in the first years of the global economic crisis. It is shown that there is a much higher incidence of over-education among workers in the Spanish tourism sector than in the rest of the economy despite this sector recording lower educational levels. This study estimates two models to analyse the influence of the educational mismatch on wages and job satisfaction for workers in the tourism industry and for the Spanish economy as a whole. The first model shows that in the tourism sector, the wage penalty associated with over-education is approximately 10%. The second reveals that in the tourism sector the levels of satisfaction of over-educated workers are considerably lower than those corresponding to workers well assigned. With respect to the differences between tourism and the overall economy in both aspects, the wage penalty is substantially lower in the case of tourism industries and the effect of over-education on job satisfaction is very similar to that of the economy as a whole in a context where both wages and the private returns to education are considerably lower in the tourism sector.

Gender portrayals in food commercials: a content analysis of Spanish television advertisements

Content analysis of media messages from a gender perspective has a long tradition. In the particular field of advertising, most of the researches have been focused on generic samples of advertisements or on the advertising traditionally associated to a masculine or a feminine audience. However, few authors have analyzed gender contents in food advertising, in spite of the close relationship between gender structures and the social processes of food purchase and preparation. Thus, gender representations in food advertising broadcast in Spanish television are analyzed in this article. The main results obtained show clear gender differences. For example, there is a clear predominance of masculine voices over and a more balanced situation regarding protagonists. Besides, feminine protagonists are more frequently located indoors, portrayed as attractive women and connected to advertising claims related to beauty or to the healthy qualities of the product.

The effects of economic crises on tourism success: an integrated model

This paper provides a theoretical model of the influence of economic crises on tourism destination performance. It discusses the temporary and permanent effects of economic crises on the global market shares of tourism destinations through a series of potential transmission mechanisms based on the main economic competitiveness determinants identified in the literature. The proposed model explains the non-neutrality of economic shocks in tourism competitiveness. The model is tested on Spain's tourism industry, which is among the leaders of the global tourism sector, for the period 1970–2013 using non-linear econometric techniques. The empirical analysis confirms that the proposed model is appropriate for explaining the changes in the market positions caused by the economic crises.

Detecting Free Riders in Collective Brands through a Hierarchical Choice Process

Free-riding behaviors exist in tourism and they should be analyzed from a comprehensive perspective; while the literature has mainly focused on free riders operating in a destination, the destinations themselves might also free ride when they are under the umbrella of a collective brand. The objective of this article is to detect potential free-riding destinations by estimating the contribution of the different individual destinations to their collective brands, from the point of view of consumer perception. We argue that these individual contributions can be better understood by reflecting the various stages that tourists follow to reach their final decision. A hierarchical choice process is proposed in which the following choices are nested (not independent): “whether to buy,” “what collective brand to buy,” and “what individual brand to buy.” A Mixed Logit model confirms this sequence, which permits estimation of individual contributions and detection of free riders.

La publicidad institucional en la Junta de Andalucía

A partir de las inserciones publicitarias realizadas por la Junta de Andalucía durante el período 1999-2009, se analiza la evolución de la publicidad gubernamental andaluza perteneciente a los distintos ámbitos (Social, Político, Corporativo y Comercial) y sectores de la publicidad institucional, centrando nuestra atención, primordialmente, en tres cuestiones fundamentales: de qué, cuándo y dónde hace publicidad la Junta de Andalucía. El objeto de la investigación cuyos resultados se presentan en esta investigación es conocer el comportamiento de la Junta de Andalucía como anunciante.