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Events play a strategic role to attract tourist flows especially during the low season. The purpose of this paper is to explore the gap between consumers’ expectations and actual satisfaction at cultural events.

A principal components analysis identifies a set of orthogonal factors related to visitors’ expectations and actual satisfaction at two different events. The empirical data were collected during two events. The geographical setting is Sardinia (Italy) where two important cultural events are held in the low season: the Cavalcata (held at the end of May) and the Sartiglia (held during Carnival). A representative random sample is collected taking into account gender, age and visitors’ nationality heterogeneity (Italian, English-speakers, French and Spanish).

Some homogeneous findings have been obtained for the two events, regardless of the different levels of attractiveness. Notably, both the events are perceived as authentic and as the expression of identity. On the whole, the empirical results indicate that the events were able to generate high levels of satisfaction.

The main limitation of this research is that the data refer to only one year, while a wider time series could allow a more accurate evaluation of both the expectations and the performance results deriving from the management of the two events. The findings provide directions to local policy makers to adopt tailored strategies to boost strengths and to contrast weaknesses of low season events.

The methodological approach presented in this paper helps practitioners and policy makers to deepen their understanding of visitors’ actual experience as well as to improve the overall quantity and quality of services offered during the events.

An in-depth analysis of the perceived quality of the services provided at events can allow public and private organizers to identify critical issues, enabling them to improve event planning, efficiency, profitability and overall performance.

This paper employs an “Importance-Performance” model (Martilla and James, 1977; Riviezzo et al., 2009) to study the gap between visitors’ expectations and their perceived performance in two events held during the low tourist season. Thanks to the use of an equivalent survey, the comparison offered the opportunity to highlight common features that allowed a generalization of results and a broader discussion.

Over 15 years have passed since the first paper was published applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure airport productivity. Since then, a wave of studies has appeared refining and validating this technique as one of the most reliable in the airport context. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a critical review of this accumulated literature.

This paper presents an exhaustive review of approximately 60 peer-reviewed published papers on business performance measurement through DEA applications in the airport industry.

The paper analyses the research on DEA technique chronologically and by geography. Managerial and academic practitioners’ interest in conducting performance measurement studies has grown and benchmarking techniques have become more sophisticated.

Despite the popularity of the methodological framework of DEA, it can be improved by further research to continue refining and exploiting deeply the basic DEA scores. Some innovations have appeared from studies using alternative approaches to DEA, e.g. a Bayesian approach.

The conclusions explore the research contribution, its final value delivered to airport management and some practical aspects and recommendations for the selected field of work.

The paper explores the contribution of research to final value delivered to airport management by describing the main complementary procedures refining DEA technique scores for improving the operational efficiencies of airports through benchmarking. As well as by presenting the results of the assessment of major determinants of efficiency at airports around the world.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the relevance of shore excursions in the distribution of cruise passenger flows; an approach which has been overlooked by many studies on cruise tourism. Specifically, the paper focuses on two destinations: Barcelona, a mature cruise destination suffering from the impact of overcrowding; and Valencia, an emerging cruise destination facing the risk of future (similar) impacts.

The method used is multiple-case study with replication logic. First, web content analysis is conducted of shore excursion descriptions of the destinations selected so as to identify the itineraries, as well as the municipalities and the specific tourist attractions included in the tours. Then, word-processing tools are used to create a regional and local data set to arrange the narrative data. Finally, density maps are drawn in order to examine the different visitor flows within the tourist hinterlands from the supply perspective.

The results indicate that most shore excursions are concentrated in the port cities. Comparing the two destinations, the paper argues that the redistribution within the cities is not equally balanced. Nevertheless, the results also reveal that the excursions offered by local shore tourism operators (TOs) in both destinations have contributed to the expansion of the cruise tourist hinterland over a wider regional area.

This paper evaluates the visitor flow distribution from a supply perspective. Hence, future studies should examine the demand dimension in order to gain a deeper understanding of the concentration intensity. Additionally, it would be worth examining not only visitors taking guided tours but also the independent ones (those who visit the destination on their own).

Despite the growing importance of cruise tourism, research on the role of local shore TOs in this sector is quite limited. One element that deserves more research attention is related to the role of shore excursions in the spatial configuration of the cruise tourist hinterland. Finally, the results obtained could also have significant implications for policy makers developing and promoting effective measures to prevent overcrowding.

This Chapter undertakes an empirical analysis of the relationship between air transport demand and economic growth in Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, using annual data from 1970 to 2019. The results indicate a cointegration relationship between air passenger movements, real exchange rate, and GDP for Brazil and Uruguay, but not for Argentina, while for Chile bivariate cointegration exists. Moreover, exogeneity analysis and impulse response simulations show that in the long run there is a bidirectional causality between transport and economic growth for Uruguay, but for Brazil air transport is not influenced by GDP growth. Air transport is, however, positively affected in the long run by Chile's GDP growth. For Argentina, the probability of causality from air transport to economic growth is low and conversely is not significant.