B5499 - APPLIED STATISTICS FOR TOURISM

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will possess skills and statistical methodological tools for analyzing the internal functional areas of the company and the market segment in which it operates, to use as support for business decisions. The focus will be on firms operating in the tourism industry. Successful students will learn how to set up a proper company information system. Furthermore, they will become familiar with the main design and implementation aspects of an opinion poll or market research, thereby (i) using statistical methodology in the analysis of purchasing behaviors and consumption; (ii) employing statistical market segmentation techniques, and (iii) evaluating the behavioral effectiveness of advertising.

Course contents

The main topics covered during the theoretical lessons include:

1. Review of baseline concepts of descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing.

2. Planning, design and evaluation of sample surveys.

3. Regression techniques: Simple linear regression, Multiple linear regression, Logistic regression.

4. Classification and dimensionality reduction techniques: Cluster analysis, Principal component analysis.

5. Statistical methods for the analysis of firms’ productivity and efficiency: Cobb-Douglas and Translog production functions, Stochastic frontier models.

All lessons will be accompanied by practical examples in Stata using real data.

Readings/Bibliography

Slides and lab materials (datasets, Stata scripts, etc.) available on Virtuale.

 

(Optional) Recommended books:

Agresti, A. (2017). Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences. Global Edition.

James, G., Witten, D., Hastie, T., and Tibshirani, R. (2013). An Introduction to Statistical Learning, with Applications in R. Springer.

Acock, A.C. (2018). A Gentle Introduction to Stata. Sixth edition. Stata Press Publication.

Teaching methods

Each theoretical lesson will be accompanied by practical examples using the statistical software Stata. You are encouraged to bring your laptop so that you can actively follow the lab sessions.

Part of the course will also be dedicated to a group assignment, where you will learn how to design a survey and collect data. You will then analyze these data using descriptive statistics, regression techniques, and classification methods.

At the end of the course, you will present your findings in class and submit a written report that describes your work and the results obtained.

Assessment methods

Attending Students:
-Written Exam (max 20 points, 90 minutes): exercises, open questions, interpretation of software results.

-Group Assignments (max 12 points): evaluated based on your final in-class presentation and a written report to be submitted by the last class. The score of the group assignment remains valid for the entire academic year, regardless of the outcome of the written exam (whether insufficient or rejected).

-Maximum final mark 32 (31/32=30L). A minimum final score of 18 out of 32 is required to pass the exam.

Not Attending Students:
-Written Exam (max 20 points, 90 minutes): exercises, open questions, interpretation of software results.

-Oral Exam (max 12 points).

-Maximum final mark 32 (31/32=30L). A minimum final score of 18 out of 32 is required to pass the exam.

 

 

The use of course materials, slides, or any other supporting resources is not permitted during the written exam.

Teaching tools

Theoretical lectures are complemented by practical lab sessions in Stata. During these labs, you will explore empirical applications of the methods covered in class using real data. By the end of the course, you will be able to conduct your own statistical analyses employing regression and classification techniques. It is suggested to bring your laptop so that you can actively follow the practical sessions.

You can download the most recent version of Stata under the UNIBO license at the following link:

https://scienzeaziendali.unibo.it/en/department/technical-and-administrative-services/software-with-campus-licenses

Office hours

See the website of Federica Galli