Abstract
Although transport infrastructure is one of the prominent factors that make Spain a major tourist destination, the international literature has revealed that the opening of new High-Speed Rail (HSR) lines is not sufficient by itself in order to increase tourist outputs in the new connected destinations. Nevertheless, the roles played by different characteristics of both travelers and destinations are of interest but they still remain not sufficiently explored. This paper focuses on the role played by HSR in fostering cultural tourism by applying a fixed-effect econometric model to a panel database (1988–2017). The database includes the number of tourists to some of the major Spanish cultural centers. The results show different impacts based on the regions, the characteristics of the museums, and the expected tourists. For destinations with previous cultural attraction, a positive effect is more evident. Moreover, the centrality of the HSR station as an enabling factor as well as the growth of the tourist market to the surrounding municipalities has been detected. Another interesting result is related to the cooperation effect between HSR and air transport, which encourages the arrivals of foreign tourists. These findings should help planners to develop policies that optimize tourist revenues by exploiting the potential of HSR development in the future.
Highlights
In the past few decades, Spain has massively invested in the expansion of the High-Speed Rail network despite the recent economic crisis and criticism for its low or even negative profitability [1,2]
The effects of High-Speed Rail (HSR) on cultural tourism are a subject of interest though the scarcity of bibliography shows that sufficient attention has not been paid in this regard up to now
Some analytic studies using the econometric models have already emerged dealing with the influence of HSR on tourism, some of them even with a meritorious high level of disaggregation, the specific impact on the cultural tourism, and, on museums and monuments, remain unexplored up to now
Summary
In the past few decades, Spain has massively invested in the expansion of the High-Speed Rail network despite the recent economic crisis and criticism for its low or even negative profitability [1,2]. This was primarily due to its high construction and operating costs and due to the low number of travelers, which turned out to be lower than predicted in previous studies [3]. The growth of this sector is because of the recovery of the consumption expenditure of households, but it is primarily due to the increase of foreign tourism revenues, which is attributed to the low crude oil prices, the growing importance of business travel, and the increasing security risks in some Mediterranean tourist destinations that compete with Spanish ones
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