Economics - Book Chapters

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10468/2908

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A factor analysis of the North American coach tour sector in Ireland
    (Dublin Institute of Technology, 2010-01-01) Ryan, Marie; Deegan, Jim; Moloney, Richard; Irish Hotels Federation
    The Irish Tourism Industry has achieved remarkable growth over the last two decades. Overseas tourist arrivals have increased from 1.95 million in 1985 to 8.00 million in 2007, before falling back to 7.80 million in 2008 (CSO, 2009). Following a lengthy period of growth, the Irish tourism industry experienced a severe downturn triggered by the current global economic crisis. Despite these conditions, the Irish tourism industry remains one of Ireland’s most important economic sectors generating almost €5.0 billion in foreign exchange earnings (approximately 4% to Gross National Product). The tourism industry is at a critical juncture. It must try to ensure the industry weathers the current recession. Competing effectively for business by correctly targeting consumers when the global economy improves, will shape the future of Irish tourism activities. As tourism has grown and becomes more competitive, the country’s interest in attracting its share of visitors has also grown (Sheehan, Ritchie & Hudson, 2007). The potential of the North American coach market provides an interesting opportunity for the industry. Factor analysis is used to identify crucial marketing information. Irish tourism policymakers have limited knowledge of the type of North American tourists who visits here. The information that currently exists is primarily due to research carried out by Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland’s Survey of Travellers. Ward noted there is a need for empirical work in this area as it “would be particularly insightful for the Irish tourism industry” (2006, p. 434), since destination choices available to consumers today have proliferated (Pike, 2005). This chapter reports factor analysis results based on the North American coach tourist. By analysing important travel behaviours and the character types of the North American coach tourist, seven future potential coach market niches are identified. The chapter contributes to the issues raised in the New Horizons for Irish Tourism: An Agenda for Action (2003), by way of establishing the factors that encourage and discourage North American coach tourists to go on holiday as well as establish their personality traits. The chapter is organised as follows: Section 2, examines the North American tourist in Ireland. Section 3 describes the methodology. Section 4 presents the findings of the research. Finally, the chapter concludes with a summary and policy implications.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    What drives on- versus off-trade beer consumption? A regional and global panel analysis of 97 countries
    (Springer, 2023-12-02) O'Connor, Fergal; Waehning, Nadine
    This chapter examines the elasticities of demand of beer (price, cross price and income). This shows how the drivers of demand for beer vary regionally. We break down this demand between on- and off-trade consumption to show that these two markets have very distinct features, analysing data for 97 countries using Euromonitor data from 2006 to 2021, using a panel fixed effects model. We find that off-trade beer is a complement for on-trade, the “Prinks effect” where beer is consumed at home before going to an on-trade venue, but on-trade beer is a substitute for off-trade beer. We identify region-specific differences such as: Western Europeans off-trade beer consumption falling as their incomes rise and Eastern Europe being the only region where the “Prinks effect” doesn’t hold. We make recommendations around region specific similarities in on- and off-trade which could be considered by businesses considering pricing and internationalisation policies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Spatial effects in regional tourism firm births and deaths
    (Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2020-12-17) Power, Bernadette; Doran, Justin; Ryan, Geraldine
    Agglomeration economies are benefits that firms obtain when they locate close to one another or are constrained spatially. Tourism is heavily reliant on agglomeration economies rather than mere resource endowments. Policy formation requires an understanding of how tourism agglomeration impacts entrepreneurship within regions. In this chapter, we focus on how agglomeration economies impact enterprise birth and death rates within the tourism sector in Ireland using a comprehensive dataset on tourism firm births and deaths. Agglomeration economies have been studied in the area of regional economic growth and prosperity, but less is known about the extent to which spatial agglomeration economies affect regional firm births and deaths in the tourism sector. Our results provide evidence of positive spatial dependence in regional tourism enterprise births and deaths. Co-location of a diverse set of complementary enterprises fosters greater tourism enterprise births. Greater local specialisation rather than diversity lowers regional tourism enterprise deaths.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The regional dimension of subsidies, innovation and job growth in european firms
    (RSA Research Network on Cohesion Policy, 2016-10) Crowley, Frank; Dotti, Nicola Francesco
    The analysis in this chapter reflects on subsidy provision across a sample of European countries from 2005 and assesses the impact of subsidies on the performance outcomes of recipient firms. A key objective of the paper is to explore the regional dimension to identify if firms in rural areas are more likely to receive subsidies and whether performance outcome disparities exist for firms in less urbanized locations. The results of the analysis indicate that subsidies are leading to improvements in firm innovation. The counterfactual analysis indicates that a world without subsidies would result in lower levels of innovation. Subsidized firms are located in less urbanized areas, are larger, foreign, offer training to employees, are better educated, are more high-tech and they export. Regional disparities are evident for subsidized firms that product innovate, however, they are absent for process innovation, pointing to product life cycle regional effects.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item