88370 - Tourism and Transport

Learning outcomes

At course completion, the student is expected to have acquired deeper knowledge on the relevance of the transport sector, personal mobility and spatial interaction for tourism. He/she will be able to explain the main models describing how the choices of transportation of individuals emerge, and how these models apply to tourism. Moreover, he/she will have acquired a basic level of familiarity with the application of some of these models to real data.

Course contents

In this course, the relationship between tourism and transport is examined using several applied examples from economics, geography, and other social sciences.

After a general introduction, a significant time will be devoted to explaining approaches and models dedicated to the analysis of the demand. In particular, these lessons will consider how transport manifests itself within the tourism system and how the provision of movement and mobility facilitates and is necessary for leisure activities. Within this part, the course will also touch on tourism motivations, tourism data, and on the modelling of mobility flows. The course will subsequently focus on transport supply issues and how they relate to tourism. Different forms of market competition in transport, as well as the role of networks. Finally, policy aspects such as equity, health and sustainability will be touched upon briefly.

An indicative list of topics to be treated is then the following:

- General introduction
- Time and space diagrams
- Life cycle, tourist motivation and transport
- Value of time
- Mobility demand
- Spatial interaction models
- Transport supply issues
- Transport networks and flows
- Health, equity, sustainability

Readings/Bibliography

Teaching material, consisting of handbook chapters and journal articles, as well as the slides used in class, will be provided by the instructor on Virtuale.

The main reference texts for the course will be the following:

- Duval, D.T. (2007) Tourism and Transport: Modes, Networks and Flows. Channel View Publications.

- Page, S.J. (2009) Transport and Tourism: Global Perspectives. Prentice Hall, Harlow.

Teaching methods

The course will mix in-class theoretical lectures, analysis of research articles, and instructor-assisted groupworks, mostly based on home readings (all available also via MS Teams).

Assessment methods

The final grade is composed as follows:

- 2/3: written exam;
- 1/3: groupwork activities and participation.

The written exam will be composed of open-answer questions on the topics taught during the course. Students will select two questions out of the three proposed.

Groupwork activities to be successfully evaluated, students have to participate in at least four of them (out of five). Students following the course online will be involved in online groups, to facilitate participation.

Students who cannot attend class regularly will answer all three open-answer questions in the exam.

The exam will be carried out in the computer lab, and is identical in person and remotely. Students taking the exam remotely will need to connect via Zoom with both a computer and a cellphone. In particular, they will share their computer screen, while using microphone and webcam from the cellphone.

During the exam, it is not necessary nor allowed using any additional material (notes, calculator, paper sheets...).

A positive final mark can only be refused once. After publication of the results, refusal of the grade has to be communicated via email within the day of the subsequent office hours of the instructor.

Exam grades generically follow this distribution (in relation to ECTS grades):

<18 insufficient (F)
18 sufficient (E)
19-22 average (D)
23-26 good (C)
27-29 very good (B)
30 and 30L excellent (A)

Teaching tools

- Teaching material, provided on Virtuale.

- Regular weekly office hours.

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Patuelli