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The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among determinant (ease of use), extrinsic (usefulness) and intrinsic motivations (enjoyment), attachment and usage intention regarding seniors’ use of mobile devices for tourism. In addition, this study examines the moderating role of knowledge in these relationships.

The researchers collected data via online surveys to reach the target population of this study, 55 years and older adults who had used mobile devices for tourism. The researchers used the partial least squares approach for this study.

The results reveal that ease of use has significant effects on extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. The motivations of usefulness and enjoyment significantly affect attachment, which, in turn, influences usage intention. The relationships between ease of use and usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment and enjoyment and attachment were stronger for the high-knowledge group than for the low-knowledge group. The relationship between usefulness and attachment was stronger for the low-knowledge group than for the high-knowledge group.

The findings of this study provide compelling implications for academics and practitioners in the senior tourism field.

The compelling insight of this study is the development of a research model that combines an emergent construct of attachment as a mediator and knowledge of technology as a moderator.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the competitiveness of the Uruguayan rural tourism sector against its main competitors from Argentina and Brazil, as perceived by Uruguayan stakeholders on the supply side. The paper will also evaluate the potential of Uruguay as a rural tourism destination in attracting German tourists.

Two different questionnaires were administered, one to Uruguayan rural tourism stakeholders and another one to potential German tourists in Germany.

The findings indicate that the main strengths of Uruguayan rural tourism offer, compared to Argentina and Brazil, are the hospitality and friendliness of local people, the natural and cultural attractions and the country’s security and safety. Main weaknesses identified were the poor management of several destination components that are key to create a successful tourism destination and poor management of the “demand conditions” component of Dwyer and Kim’s (2003) integrated model.

There is very limited research done on the competitiveness of Uruguay as a rural tourist destination in attracting foreign tourists (Mackinnon et al., 2009). The objective of this study is to partially fill this gap by assessing how competitive Uruguayan rural tourism is and evaluating whether Uruguay represents an attractive market for German tourists looking for agro tourism and farm holiday destinations. The German market was chosen because it is one of the top tourist-generating countries and one of the biggest spenders in international tourism (The World Tourism organization, 2010). Moreover, most tourists – from outside South America – selecting Uruguay as a tourist destination come from Germany, USA and Australia (Peralta, 2012).

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the performance of Spanish tourism regions for the 2008-2011 period, to obtain a ranking of efficiency and to examine the hypothesis that the efficiency of these regions is determined by a group of contextual variables.

In contrast with monitoring reports based on descriptive methods, this paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology and bootstrap semiparametric procedures to correct inherent bias. The significance of a group of exogenous factors is investigated and the importance of each determinant is ordered by its elasticity.

The ranking obtained by radial DEA models and by bias-corrected ones describes two remarkably different settings. The exogenous variables influence hypothesis and confirmed: that estimated coefficients are of the correct sign and statistically significant at 5 per cent.

The statistical significance of the potential attractors can offer an interesting tool for strategic decisions. The two-stage procedure employed has supposed a turning point in the methodology and there are only a handful of very recent studies of this type in the literature on tourism destination performance. In this sense, no previous work has considered the returns to scale test or the separability assumption. Following United Nations of World Tourism Organization recommendations, it is essential to move towards responsible tourism in all aspects. Some final considerations about the link between performance and sustainability of the Spanish tourist model are addressed in this study.

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el funcionamiento de las regiones turísticas españolas durante el período 2008-2011, para obtener un ranking de eficiencia y examinar la hipótesis de que la eficiencia viene determinada por un grupo de variables ambientales.

Este estudio emplea la metodología del Análisis Envolvente de Datos (DEA) y un procedimiento bootstrap semiparamétrico para corregir el sesgo inherente de los coeficientes de eficiencia. Se investiga la significatividad de un grupo de variables exógenas, y la importancia de cada una de ellas se ordena mediante su elasticidad.

La clasificación obtenida de los modelos DEA radiales y la derivada de los coeficientes insesgados, describe dos escenarios muy diferentes. Los resultados confirman la hipótesis de influencia de las variables exógenas: los coeficientes estimados tienen el signo esperado y son estadísticamente significativos al 5%.

La significancia estadística de las variables exógenas puede ofrecer una herramienta de interés para la toma de decisiones estratégicas. El procedimiento bietápico empleado supuso un punto de inflexión en la metodología y solamente existe un reducido número de trabajos en la literatura, si bien, ninguno de ellos ha considerado el contraste sobre la escala de los rendimientos o la condición de separabilidad. Siguiendo las recomendaciones de la Organización Mundial del Turismo (OMT), es esencial desplazarse hacia un turismo responsable; el trabajo añade una reflexión final sobre el vínculo entre eficiencia y la sostenibilidad del modelo turístico español.