Sources of Data to Tackle the Challenges of Public Transport Provision in Seasonal Tourist Destinations

Abstract

Tourism reconfigures the metropolitan dynamics and the patterns of use of the urban systems. The seasonal nature of tourism produces an impact on the urban hierarchies, since it affects the labor, residential, and recreational markets. As a result, people move to and in the destination and it challenges the supply of sustainable modes of transport such as public transport. This research is set within the context of three demanding challenges that tourist destinations need to face-up: to increase environmental sustainability, to enhance destination competitiveness, and finally to assure quality and comfort of public transport services for the local resident population. Camp de Tarragona region, where Costa Daurada (one of the most important Spanish tourist brands) is located, is analyzed to illustrate how different data sources can aid to confront the aforementioned challenges. Given that seasonality is a dynamic phenomenon, suitable data should be flexible in terms of its time framework. To this end data from smart travel cards provided by the consortium that manages the public transport system in the region has been analyzed. Data unveiled the impact of seasonality on the evolution of demand throughout the year, the type of transport tickets used, or changes occurred in the geographical distribution of the mobility Alternative data sources such as surveys and passive mobile positioning data have also been examined, and their pros and cons have been addressed.

Citation

Miravet, D., Gutiérrez, A. and Domènech, A. (2021), "Sources of Data to Tackle the Challenges of Public Transport Provision in Seasonal Tourist Destinations", Zamparini, L. (Ed.) Sustainable Transport and Tourism Destinations (Transport and Sustainability, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-994120210000013011