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Article
Publication date: 31 August 2016

Spyros Niavis and Georgios Vaggelas

The significant benefits associated with cruise tourism have mobilized port industry, as progressively, a large number of ports are developing cruise operations. Although…

3287

Abstract

Purpose

The significant benefits associated with cruise tourism have mobilized port industry, as progressively, a large number of ports are developing cruise operations. Although increasing cruise traffic is a major goal for cruise ports, homeporting constitutes a strategic target of the majority of ports due to its greater economic benefits for both the port itself and its hinterland. The establishment of homeport traffic in a cruise port is subjected to a variety of port internal and external factors. Taking these into account, the paper aims at defining elements that affect the potential of a cruise port to become a homeport.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 47 Mediterranean ports is selected to form the basis for the implementation of an ordinal regression model which links the likelihood of ports to attract homeport traffic with seven explanatory variables which emerged from relevant literature and are split in the main categories of ports’ and hinterlands’ characteristics. To fit the model into the paper’s data, ports are divided into three categories based on their homeport cruise traffic.

Findings

The results of the empirical model signify that both internal and external factors affect the potential of a port to become a cruise homeport. Concerning the internal factors, adequate infrastructure allowing the facilitation of the last generation of cruise ships and the presence of a private enterprise in ports’ operation seems to foster homeport traffic. Additionally, efficiency in operations seems to be a crucial element. On the other hand, the connectivity of port’s; hinterlands, tourist infrastructure and the level of economic growth are proved to be the hinterlands’ elements which increase the likelihood of a port to attract additional homeport traffic.

Practical implications

The model forms a comprehensive evaluation basis for whether a cruise port should intensify its pursuit of homeport traffic, as the estimated coefficients could support port and local authorities to understand their competitive position against other ports and spot their strengths and weaknesses.

Originality/value

The paper contributes in the research dealing with the identification of crucial elements of homeporting from the port’s point of view. Although, it should be mentioned that previous efforts targeting on revealing the characteristics affecting the homeporting potential of ports mostly have been based on questionnaires and expert judgements or empirical models in which the total – and not the homeport traffic – was used as the dependent variable. With the proposed empirical model, home-porting choice analysis is transferred, on the one hand, from the stated preferences level to the revealed preferences level and, on the other hand, from an indirect to a direct approximation of the issue.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 15 June 2017

Jeronimo Esteve-Perez and Antonio Garcia-Sanchez

Cruise traffic has dynamically advanced worldwide over the past two decades. This maritime business and tourism typology is strongly concentrated in several links that comprise…

1966

Abstract

Purpose

Cruise traffic has dynamically advanced worldwide over the past two decades. This maritime business and tourism typology is strongly concentrated in several links that comprise the cruise product. With regard to destination regions, the concentration occurs both in the few worldwide destination regions and in the specific ports within a given destination region. Moreover, in a cruise itinerary’s configuration, there is a strong spatial dependence between the ports that comprise it. Taking these into account, the aims of this paper are to identify the current competitive positions of Spanish cruise ports and to explain the different features of the competitive positions obtained.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 21 Spanish ports is selected to conduct a competitive positioning analysis. The analysis is developed by applying portfolio analysis based on the “growth-share matrix” adapted to the port industry. Moreover, the sample of ports is divided into three groups based on geographical positions of ports on the Spanish coast, and each group is analysed separately.

Findings

The three Spanish coastal areas have a behavioural pattern in which few ports concentrate the greater share of the cruising activity. The highest number of competitive positions are mature leader and high potential. In the three Spanish coastal areas, there are ports with these positions. Additionally, there are homeports available in the three coastal areas.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the research of the cruise industry sector especially from the point of view of cruise ports. The results obtained may be useful to cruise port managers for developing strategies aimed at increasing cruise traffic in a port.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 25 April 2016

David J. Bentolila, Ronit Kastro Ziedenveber, Yehuda Hayuth and Theo Notteboom

Avoiding truck congestion and peaks in landside activity is one of the challenges to container terminal managers. The spreading of truck arrivals at terminals can be facilitated…

3787

Abstract

Purpose

Avoiding truck congestion and peaks in landside activity is one of the challenges to container terminal managers. The spreading of truck arrivals at terminals can be facilitated by widening the opening hours of terminals at the landside. Israel’s Ministry of Transport has instituted the “Good Night Program”, involving monetary incentives for importers and exporters who deliver containers to ports at night.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper aims to quantitatively examine the market utility resulting from shifting traffic from daytime to nighttime, and analyzes customer considerations regarding nighttime transportation.

Findings

The external utility found in the traffic-economics model is quite similar to the economic incentive given to customers. Therefore, a significant increase of the incentive is not feasible.

Originality/value

Furthermore, it seems that an incentive method by itself is not effective enough, and does not motivate customers to act and find creative solutions to the obstacles they face. To achieve a considerable change in nighttime transport to Israeli ports, more effective methods should be examined.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 7 November 2019

Eamonn O'Connor, Stephen Hynes, Amaya Vega and Natasha Evers

The purpose of this paper is to examine performance change in the Irish state-owned port sector over the 2000-2016 period using a case study approach.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine performance change in the Irish state-owned port sector over the 2000-2016 period using a case study approach.

Design/methodology/approach

For analysis, qualitative sources are used to construct an explanatory account for the quantitative measures of productivity, profitability and traffic shift-share change across the major ports within the system.

Findings

The results show that overall change in performance largely follows that of the macro-economic performance of the region, characterised by pre-recession growth, decline during the recession and post-recession recovery. Across the ports, however, there was a notable divergence in performance post-recession. Identified factors affecting performance change across the period include demand-side structural change, labour rationalisation and degree of private sector participation.

Originality/value

This study addresses a gap in the formal evaluation of port performance in Ireland. The study further demonstrates the potential of in-depth case study analysis for uncovering insights into the drivers of performance across a number of dimensions, thus allowing for the contextualisation of results. The study of a small number of cases enables the use of rich qualitative sources to create strong narratives, which combined with quantitative measures of performance, can lead to new insights.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 9 May 2023

Volker Stocker, William Lehr and Georgios Smaragdakis

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that…

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post-COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.

Details

Beyond the Pandemic? Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Telecommunications and the Internet
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-050-4

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 October 2023

Sangjun Park and Cynthia Lum

A considerable amount of police evaluation research focuses on innovative approaches to reduce crime at places. This is hardly coincidental; policing and place-based scholars have…

Abstract

Purpose

A considerable amount of police evaluation research focuses on innovative approaches to reduce crime at places. This is hardly coincidental; policing and place-based scholars have found crime is highly concentrated, and when police focus on these places, they can prevent and reduce crime. The regularity of such findings led Weisburd (2015) to assert the existence of a “law of crime concentration.” Given that bold assertion, the authors test whether the law of crime concentration is generalizable to one of the most common public safety concerns that police handle—traffic crashes.

Design/methodology/approach

To determine whether the law of crime concentration applies to traffic crashes, the authors examined crash locations and times in all counties in Utah across four years. Following and expanding on Weisburd's methods, the authors calculate the bandwidth of concentration for these crashes and analyze various types by severity and possible explanations for variations in crash concentrations across the state.

Findings

A small proportion of street segments and intersections experience a disproportionately high number of crashes, and the degree of concentration of crashes may be even higher than that of crime. Further, there are variations in the levels of crash concentration across counties and in the severity of injuries resulting from the crashes.

Practical implications

Place-based criminologists and policing scholars have not often explored traffic crashes in their analyses. Yet, traffic problems take up a significant amount of law enforcement time and resources and are often priorities for most law enforcement agencies. Given what the authors know from traffic, policing and crime and place research, targeted approaches at micro traffic crash hot spots can be beneficial for public safety prevention.

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore the application of Weisburd's Law of Crime Concentration to traffic crashes. Given that police spend a significant amount of time and resources on traffic-related problems in their jurisdiction, finding more effective, evidence-based approaches to address this public safety concern should be a high priority for police and researchers alike.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. 46 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 November 2022

Bo Liu, Jingwen Hou, Xiaoping Ma, Mengtong Shi, Sibo Lu and Ruoxuan Wang

Due to the conflicts between left turn traffic and opposite straight-going traffic in urban traffic network, some of the traffic lanes cannot be used to discharge vehicles during…

Abstract

Purpose

Due to the conflicts between left turn traffic and opposite straight-going traffic in urban traffic network, some of the traffic lanes cannot be used to discharge vehicles during its green phases and the intersection capacity can be greatly reduced. This study/paper aims to reduce the effect of conflicts and increase its capacity through the reasonable pre-signal phase time with the exchangeable lanes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper took into consideration various influence factors to intersection capacity and formulated the capacity optimization model based on 0-1 mixed-integer programming model. This model is efficiently solved by standard branch-and-bound algorithms.

Findings

The authors took an intersection as an example and solved the optimal signal timing and entrance lane capacity via this model. Then, simulations were carried out to verify the effect of the exchangeable lanes strategy of this intersection through the simulation software VISSIM and take the traffic volume and delay as outputs, which indicated that this model has better performance.

Originality/value

The front-end control strategy can not only exploit the full potential of the intersection but also significantly improve the operational efficiency of the intersection. It plays a positive role in improving urban intersection congestion.

Details

Smart and Resilient Transportation, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2632-0487

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 July 2022

Yuchuan Du, Han Wang, Qian Gao, Ning Pan, Cong Zhao and Chenglong Liu

Resilience concepts in integrated urban transport refer to the performance of dealing with external shock and the ability to continue to provide transportation services of all…

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Abstract

Purpose

Resilience concepts in integrated urban transport refer to the performance of dealing with external shock and the ability to continue to provide transportation services of all modes. A robust transportation resilience is a goal in pursuing transportation sustainability. Under this specified context, while before the perturbations, robustness refers to the degree of the system’s capability of functioning according to its design specifications on integrated modes and routes, redundancy is the degree of duplication of traffic routes and alternative modes to maintain persistency of service in case of perturbations. While after the perturbations, resourcefulness refers to the capacity to identify operational problems in the system, prioritize interventions and mobilize necessary material/ human resources to recover all the routes and modes, rapidity is the speed of complete recovery of all modes and traffic routes in the urban area. These “4R” are the most critical components of urban integrated resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

The trends of transportation resilience's connotation, metrics and strategies are summarized from the literature. A framework is introduced on both qualitative characteristics and quantitative metrics of transportation resilience. Using both model-based and mode-free methodologies that measure resilience in attributes, topology and system performance provides a benchmark for evaluating the mechanism of resilience changes during the perturbation. Correspondingly, different pre-perturbation and post-perturbation strategies for enhancing resilience under multi-mode scenarios are reviewed and summarized.

Findings

Cyber-physic transportation system (CPS) is a more targeted solution to resilience issues in transportation. A well-designed CPS can be applied to improve transport resilience facing different perturbations. The CPS ensures the independence and integrity of every child element within each functional zone while reacting rapidly.

Originality/value

This paper provides a more comprehensive understanding of transportation resilience in terms of integrated urban transport. The fundamental characteristics and strategies for resilience are summarized and elaborated. As little research has shed light on the resilience concepts in integrated urban transport, the findings from this paper point out the development trend of a resilient transportation system for digital and data-driven management.

Details

Smart and Resilient Transportation, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2632-0487

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 September 2021

Uwafiokun Idemudia, Nnenna Okoli, Mary Goitom and Sylvia Bawa

Reintegration programs have emerged as part of the regimes of care for survivors of human trafficking. However, empirical analysis of the reintegration outcomes for survivors…

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Abstract

Purpose

Reintegration programs have emerged as part of the regimes of care for survivors of human trafficking. However, empirical analysis of the reintegration outcomes for survivors remains limited in the African context. Hence, this paper aims to examine the challenges and opportunities of reintegration assistance programs for survivors of human trafficking in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with repatriated women who have accessed reintegration assistance in Nigeria, and data was analyzed using thematic analysis.

Findings

The findings suggest that while the reintegration programs might address the procedural aspect of reintegration, the achievement of substantive reintegration remains incomplete. This is because of the structural conditions of the context within which reintegration is supposed to occur.

Practical implications

There is a need to take seriously the distinction between the reintegration of survivors into a new community or a former community in the design of a regime of care for survivors of human trafficking in Africa. Crucially, the focus on procedural reintegration should not also divert attention away from the structural conditions and reforms needed to ensure survivors achieve substantive reintegration.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the limited literature on life after trafficking and demonstrates the strengths and limitations of reintegration programs as a regime of care for survivors of human trafficking. In addition, this study empirically grounded the theoretical distinction between different aspects of the process of reintegration.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 July 2019

Zhizhou Wu, Yiming Zhang, Guishan Tan and Jia Hu

Traffic density is one of the most important parameters to consider in the traffic operation field. Owing to limited data sources, traditional methods cannot extract traffic

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Abstract

Purpose

Traffic density is one of the most important parameters to consider in the traffic operation field. Owing to limited data sources, traditional methods cannot extract traffic density directly. In the vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) environment, the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) interaction technologies create better conditions for collecting the whole time-space and refined traffic data, which provides a new approach to solving this problem.

Design/methodology/approach

On that basis, a real-time traffic density extraction method has been proposed, including lane density, segment density and network density. Meanwhile, using SUMO and OMNet++ as traffic simulator and network simulator, respectively, the Veins framework as middleware and the two-way coupling VANET simulation platform was constructed.

Findings

Based on the simulation platform, a simulated intersection in Shanghai was developed to investigate the adaptability of the model.

Originality/value

Most research studies use separate simulation methods, importing trace data obtained by using from the simulation software to the communication simulation software. In this paper, the tight coupling simulation method is applied. Using real-time data and history data, the research focuses on the establishment and validation of the traffic density extraction model.

Details

Journal of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-9802

Keywords

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