Crossing frontiers between tourism and demography. An empirical analysis based on European travellers’ behaviour

This paper aims to establish possible tourism demand scenarios of European travellers to Portugal based on the relationship with changing population structures. A combination of the EUROBAROMETER report 370 (“Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism in 2013”) and the cohort-component method for population projections will allow the development of different possible tourism demand scenarios. Following the European report, individuals who travelled in 2013 were most likely to live in a household with two or more individuals. Thus, if elderly couples are together till later in their life and in better physiological shape, it is possible that the number of elderly individuals travelling for tourism purposes will increase in the near future. If we can expect tourists from developing countries to be younger due to their demographic dynamics than those from developed countries, where the ageing population is growing fast, we can expect that the percentage of the elderly among tourists will increase. Furthermore, the 2013 European report found that the combination of socio-demographic variables, such as, age, population, gender, household dimension, country of residence and trip purpose explained tourism demand scenarios for Portugal, confirming that seniors and families evidence a paramount sense of importance for the destination. In the literature there is a lack of discussion about the effects of demography in the future and the role of an ageing population in tourism demand choice patterns. We aim to contribute to filling this gap. Consequently, we strongly believe that this paper contributes to the literature by introducing a new field of discussion about the importance of demographic changes in shaping travel trends.

EL TURISMO Y LA CONVIVENCIA COMUNAL EN UN ÁREA RURAL-COSTERA

En el presente artículo el lector podrá encontrar algunos aspectos  relacionados  con el turismo como actividad económica y su expresión concreta en las comunidades de Tambor y Montezuma de Cóbano, provincia de Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Pero además y es la parte fundamental del mismo se hace referencia aquí al impacto que ha tenido este sector en la convivencia comunal y cotidianidad de esas comunidades. Este impacto se analiza en tres dimensiones específicas: la socioeconómica, la cultural y la ambiental. En síntesis y como producto de los efectos del turismo, la zona analizada sufre una transformación importante que engloba la convivencia comunal; convivencia que en sus manifestaciones generales coincide en cierta medida con el contexto nacional y mundial, pero que también tiene su particularidad. En este sentido, se nota una re-dimensión en la individualidad de actor y sector social, pero además en la totalidad de la convivencia comunal. Esta re-dimensión, si bien es producto de actividades económicas  de sistemas productivos y de nuevas estrategias de desarrollo globalizantes, se manifiesta en lo social, en lo cultural y en la relación sociedad naturaleza ó ambiente a nivel local, como un producto más divertido de la actividad turística.   Abstract: This paper discusses the effects of the tourism industry in the communities of Tambor and Montezuma, Cobano, province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica. If focuses in the impact and tourism in peoples everyday life from on three- fold perspective: socio-economic, cultural and evironmental. Regarding the impact of tourism in the socioeconomic dimensión the study revels an important change in the labor market, which was traditionally related to farming and fishing, now oriented to the production of goods and services for tourists and other economic activities take place in medium and small scales and involve men and women, Young  and adults. They generate different social and interpersonal relations, which contribute to change comunal daily coexistence. In the cultural discussion tourism had changed daily like in these communities and patterns of social coexistence. Among the most significant changes are customs and holidays, clothing styles, the loss of traditional forms of communication, the beginning of different ways of dialoging and new relationships among neighbors, and even of the way people talk and how and whit they eat. In relation to the environment the new ways to relate to nature and of trying to manage and handle the natural resources the awareness and the new attitude in regard to the environmental situation, as well as the wormiest for conservation. For having clean and healthy surroundings, among others, had the collective levels. To summarize as a result of the effects of tourism an important transformation is talking place in the communities under study that coincides with the national and global context to a certain extent, but to also has its own particularities. In this sense, it is noticeable a re-definition of the individuality of each actor and social sector and in the totality of the communal identify as well. Eventhough that redefinition is the result of economic activities, of economic systems and new globalized developmental strategies, also effects in the social and cultural aspects and in the relation men-nature in a local level.