Ninth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

The concept of connectivity has gained importance across all disciplines, including tourism. The connectivity analysis allows to understand the interrelation among tourist attractions, as well as factors such as tourist services consumed, expenditure level, satisfaction level, and personal tourists’ characteristic (gender, education, income, etc.). In this study, we build the Tourism Connectivity Index (TCI) to understand this kind of relationship between tourists’ profile and tourist attractions. The TCI is developed for an island destination using a large public database from the Canary Islands (almost 165.000 tourists observed from 2018 to 2022) including attractions visited, services consumed, expenditure level, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. We believe that using this index would be well-suited for islands around the world due to their distinct geographical characteristics, restricted resource availability, and vulnerable ecological systems, which need a particular consideration. Results from this study are useful for destination managers to optimize the resource allocation with the aim to enhance the promotion of diversity, support sustainability efforts, stimulate economic growth, maintain competitiveness, adapt visitor preferences, and encourage cultural exchange. Additionally, the TCI is also useful to assist visitors in formulating travel itineraries maximizing the opportunities for discovery, while also preserving the ecology and culture on the islands, in line with sustainability principles. The incorporation of gender and seasonality concerns by the TCI guarantees that island tourism stays inclusive and flexible in response to evolving tourist patterns, hence encouraging year-round visitation.