Impacts of seasonality on environmental sustainability in the tourism sector based on destination type: an application to Spain's Andalusia region

José María Martín Martín ^[1] ; Juan de Dios Jiménez Aguilera ^[1] ; Valentín Molina Moreno ^[1]
1. [1] Universidad de Granada
  
  Universidad de Granada
  
  Granada, España
Localización: Tourism economics: the business and finance of tourism and recreation, ISSN 1354-8166, Vol. 20, Nº. 1, 2014, págs. 123-142
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- Numerous studies have shown the negative effects of seasonality on sustainable tourist destinations. The region of Andalusia in Spain receives more than 16 million tourists annually. The purpose of this study is to analyse levels of seasonality in this region during 2005�2010 according to type of destination (coastal capitals, coastal areas, inland capitals and inland areas) to highlight the differences in patterns of seasonality in these destinations. The authors focus on tourism seasonality based on type of destination as regional aggregate data provide very little information about the situation, thus making it difficult to determine the expected effects of seasonality on the sustainability of each environment. Due to its wide acceptance, the authors use the Gini index in the analysis and apply it to monthly arrivals of passengers and their overnight stays. Their analysis reveals that coastal areas suffer from the greatest seasonality, and that these destinations also receive the greatest influx of tourists. Furthermore, coastal areas have experienced higher growth in terms of seasonal trends, which may threaten sustainability. The analysis also shows that the seasonality of foreign tourism intensifies because its monthly distribution pattern is very similar to that of domestic tourism.