Top PDF The determinants of length of stay of tourists in the Azores

the determinants of the vacation-taking decision process for a group of Israeli senior citizens. The Tobit model in Fleischer and Pizam overcomes the fact that several individuals in the study group do not take vacations at all and, thus, the model allows a corner solution case, with many individuals experiencing zero days of vacation. Fleischer and Pizam conclude that age, health status and income have a positive effect on the length of stay. In the present case, only departing tourists were surveyed and, hence, all tourists experienced a strictly positive length of stay. Therefore, the Tobit model, employed in Fleischer and Pizam, is not applicable. Alegre and Pou (2006) analyse length of stay for a pooled cross-section of tourists visiting the Balearic Islands. They employ a logit model, where the explanatory variable is binary (0 if length of stay is shorter than one week and 1 otherwise). By doing so, the ensuing policy implications are less far-reaching in the sense that all lengths of stay shorter than, say, one week are treated alike, be they one-day stays or six-day stays. This loss of information may be particularly worrisome when lengths of stay are not obviously dichotomized or clustered and are, instead, roughly evenly distributed over several days, leaving the researcher with no obvious cut-off to partition lengths of stay arbitrarily. In any event, Alegre and Pou find, among other results, that labour status, nationality and repeat visitation rate are statistically significant determinants of length of stay. Alternatively, several authors employ count data models successfully to study tourism demand. Smith (1988) employs count data models to estimate per trip consumer surplus for a sample of households in Pennsylvania. Hellerstein (1991) also employs count data models to estimate a county-level travel cost model, based on aggregate data from the state of Minnesota. More recently, Hellström (2006) estimates a bivariate count data model for household

Length of stay is an important determinant of the overall impact of tourism in a given economy. The number of days that tourists stay at a particular destination is likely to influence their expenditure, for instance, as the number of possible experiences to be undertaken by tourists depends on their length of stay (Davies and Mangan 1992; Legoherel 1998; Kozak 2004). Understanding the determinants of length of stay is, thus, important to fully characterize tourism demand and its impact on a given touristic destination (Gokovali, Bahar and Kozak 2007). In addition, Alegre and Pou (2006) argue that the importance of uncovering the determinants of length of stay and concomitant gains to policymakers and researchers alike has grown with the increasingly pervasive pattern of shorter lengths of stays. Alegre and Pou claim that uncovering the microeconomic determinants of length of stay is critical to the design of marketing policies that effectively promote longer stays, associated with higher occupancy rates and revenue streams. In fact, income from tourism might well be falling in many destinations despite the increase in visitor arrivals, due to a decrease in the length of stay. Length of stay has also aroused interest beyond its importance as an expenditure determinant. For instance, in the tourism sustainability literature, length of stay is important in the context of carrying capacity analysis (Saarinen 2006). However, and as Gokovali, Bahar and Kozak (2007) argue, there are relatively few studies that estimate the determinants of length of stay resorting to microeconometric techniques. This paper contributes to fill this gap. The main aim of this paper is to estimate the determinants of length of stay, in particular, how different individual sociodemographic profiles and trip experiences influence length of stay. Length of stay is one of the questions resolved by tourists when planning or while taking their trips (Decrop and Snelders 2004). Hence, it follows that length of stay is best recorded when tourists depart, and, quite likely, is influenced by tourists’ sociodemographic profiles, on the one hand, and their experiences while visiting their destination, on the other (Decrop and Snelders 2004; Bargeman and Poel 2006). This paper accounts for such insights by employing micro data, rich on individual sociodemographic characteristics and actual trip experiences, built from individual surveys answered by a representative sample of tourists departing from the Azores: the Portuguese touristic region with the highest growth rate in the last decade.

A survey questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative and qualitative data from tourists staying in surf camps in the study area. The survey aimed to characterize these tourists. The questionnaire was prepared in English (Appendix 1) and German (Appendix 2), included 23 questions and was segmented into three parts. Respondents were firstly asked about their stay in the Algarve and the surf camp, in order to get information such as the length of their trip, their satisfaction with the price paid and their overall satisfaction. The surf stage of each respondent was asked, to get an overview if people mainly visit surf camps to learn surfing or if experienced surfers also stay in surf camps. The second part focused on the environmental awareness of the tourists. The tourists were asked if they would be willing to pay an accommodation tax earmarked for environmental protection. The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale was used to assess information about the environmental attitudes of the respondents. The last survey section queried socio-demographic information, to find out the characteristics of the people that stay in surf camps, such as where they are from, which age group they belong to, what profession they have and what income they have. The questionnaire was applied evenly at the eight different surf camps and after eight weeks a sample size of 256 tourists was reached. The survey was run in the surf camps at night, rather than in the lunch break at the beach, as the surf tourists are less distracted in the camp and have more time to fill out the questionnaire attentively. A total of 240 valid questionnaires were obtained, corresponding to 93,7% 1 of the selected sample.

alternative microeconometric parametric survival analysis models to learn the determinants of length of stay, in a novel way, featuring non-monotone hazard rates, and, concomitantly, accommodating several data patterns: a much welcomed feature, because the pattern of length of stays may vary across destinations and over time. The results sug- gest that survival analysis may be a fertile ground to analyze tourism demand if time dimension is of the essence, as is obviously the case with length of stay studies. An interesting avenue for future re- search may lie on tourism demand modeling strate- gies where time is explicitly modeled, with struc- tural models of consumer demand theory leading to reduced form survival analysis regression exercis- es, as the ones found in this article. Arguably, such body of work, rooted on microeconomic founda- tions, would allow novel tools for welfare analysis, complementary to those recently proposed by re- searchers who have drawn on discrete choice mod- els (see Berman & Kim, 1999; Feather & Shaw, 1999; Hellström, 2006; Larson, 1993; McConnell, 1992).

Although we could have incorporated a greater number of explanatory variables, this would have made the questionnaire longer, and respondents might have declined to complete it. Therefore, it was decided based on the literature review to reduce that aspect to eight attributes that are generally accepted as relevant in the evaluation of the quality of service and consequently the explanation of satisfaction and loyalty from the tourist. At the same time, it would be desirable if the data were to be collected over a greater length of time to reduce from the possible influence of seasonality. However, restrictions imposed by the hotel units dictated that the field work would not exceed five months.

ascendancy: 70 tourists or 17.50% of the total. Most tourists in the sample have high levels of education. In fact, more than 45% of the tourists in the sample have tertiary education, which is perhaps not surprising given that these tourists tend to come from the Nordic Countries, where tertiary education has relatively high incidence rates. This sample composition – with a high proportion of tourists exhibiting high education levels – suggests that compliance to environmental initiatives may indeed condition overall holiday experiences, as more educated tourists tend to be more sensitive towards such issues, especially in small, arguably fragile, islands such as the Azores. High level profession flags occupations associated with high income and status. Almost a third of the tourists in the sample have such high level professions and tend to experience stays similar to the overall pattern, but with smaller variance. With respect to trip attributes, it should be noted that most tourists in the sample visited the Azores for leisure: 73.50%. Repeat visitors accounted for 35.25% of the tourists in the sample and reported a relatively high average stay of 16.5 days. Finally, tourists who took charter flights accounted for only 37.50% and experienced, on average, 11day stays.

This paper employs count data models to estimate the determinants of length of stay, as count data models naturally lend themselves to overcome the censoring and truncation data issues associated with the non-negative, integer nature of length of stay. This paper employs a rich micro data set gathered through questionnaires ministered to a representative sample of tourists departing from the Azores: the fastest growing touristic region in Portugal. It is found that sociodemographic profiles, such as nationality and Azorean ascendancy, and trip attributes, such as repeat visitation rates and type of flight, are important determinants of length of stay. In addition, it is found that destination image and attitudes regarding environmental initiatives, constructed from a factor analysis exercise, also influence length of stay. In particular, the results suggest that marketing strategies that promote the Azores for its nature, landscape, remoteness, weather and safety may increase length of stay, whereas cultural heritage has the opposite effect.

ing most of the commercially important species. Moreover, there is an urgent need to manage and regulate the small-scale coastal ®shery in the region, and this requires basic population dynamics informa- tion for the target species (Santos et al., 1995). The present paper describes the length±weight relation- ships for 21 coastal ®sh species in the Azores using data collected during a baseline survey aimed to study the coastal ®sh community of the archipelago. We include the most common and representative coastal species of both soft and hard substrata (Patzner et al., 1991), and also most of the species targeted by local artisanal ®sheries: Abudefduf luridus, Bothus podas, Chromis limbata, Coris julis, Diplodus sargus, Echiichthys vipera, Gaidropsarus guttatus, Labrus

For this work we used data of epigean arthropods obtained in 84 natural forest sites distributed in 21 protected areas (hereafter called reserves for simplification pur- poses) with varying management status. This was in 7 of the 9 Azorean islands distributed over the three island groups, i.e., western, central and eastern (see also Borges et al. 2000, 2005a for further details regarding the reserves). The fieldwork was developed under the BALA project—‘‘Biodiversity of Arthropods in the Laurisilva of the Azores’’, which intends to inventory and study the distribution patterns of almost all orders of arthropods (excluding Crustacea, Acari, Collembola, Hymenoptera and Diptera) in the natural forests of the archipelago. Thirty-nine sites out of 84 were located in one of the islands, Terceira, which showed the largest range of disturbance levels in natural forests. Each reserve was represented by at least two sampled sites, larger reserves had more sites (Borges et al. unpublished data). At each site, a 150 m long transect was used to capture epigean fauna. Thirty pitfall traps, which are plastic cups with a top diameter of 42 mm and 78 mm deep, were dug into the ground so that the rim of the cup was flush with the soil surface. Half of the traps were filled with approximately 60 ml of a low-attractive solution (anti-freeze liquid) with a small proportion of ethylene glycol, and the other half with the same volume of a general attractive solution (Turquin), made of dark beer and some preservatives (for further details see Turquin 1973). Traps were spaced 5 m from one another, starting with a Turquin trap and alternating with the ethylene traps and were left in the field for 2 weeks, once per site, usually during the months of June, July or September of different years (Borges et al. 2005a).

Information on prescription drugs (drug names, dosage, prescription dates, ward) was collected from records of the hospital pharmacy department. All prescription records containing two or more drugs were selected. Hospitalization records, including length of stay, cost, diagnosis on admission (according to ICD-10 classification) and demographic information (age, sex) were retrieved from the national hospital database of the Brazilian Healthcare System (SIH/SUS) using information from the hospitalization authorization form (AIH). AIH is a DRG-based hospital payment system that covers almost 70% of all Brazilian hospital admissions and 100% of admissions in the hospital where the study was carried out. The AIH is used exclusively for the payment of hospitalizations that are reimbursed through a prospective payment system. The payment unit in this system is the “procedure;” the value of each procedure is pre-defined at the central level, without distinguishing among different providers (except for university hospitals). Information was also collected from patient medical discharge forms.

According to Mach’s principle the inertia of an object is not a mere property of the object but depends on how much mat- ter around the object. This means that the distant universe would affect this property. Owing to this, we would expect a slight change in the strength of gravity with time. This change should affect the Earth-Moon-Sun motion. It is found that the length of the day and the number of days in the year do not re- main constant. From coral fossil data approximately 400 mil- lion years (m.y.) ago, it has been estimated that there were lit- tle over 400 days in a year at that time. It is also observed that the Moon shows an anomalous acceleration (Dickey, 1994 [1]). As the universe expands more and more matter appears in the horizon. The expansion of the universe may thus have an impact on the Earth-Moon-Sun motion. Very recently, the universe is found to be accelerating at the present time (Pee- bles, 1999 [2], Bahcall et al., 1999 [3]). To account for this scientists suggested several models. One way to circumvent this is to allow the strength of gravity to vary slightly with time (Arbab, 2003 [4]). For a flat universe, where the expan- sion force is balanced by gravitational attraction force, this would require the universe to accelerate in order to avoid a future collapse. This can be realized if the strength of the gravitational attraction increases with time (Arbab, 1997 [5], 2003 [4]), at least during the present epoch (matter domi- nated). One appropriate secure way to do this is to define an effective Newton’s constant, which embodies this variation while keeping the “bare” Newton’s constant unchanged. The idea of having an effective constant, which shows up when a system is interacting with the outside world, is not new. For instance, an electron in a solid moves not with its “bare” mass but rather with an effective mass. This effective mass exhibits the nature of interaction in question. With the same token, one would expect a celestial object to interact (cou- ple) with its effective constant rather than the normal New- ton’s constant, which describes the strength of gravity in a universe with constant mass. We, therefore, see that the ex-

According to Hind (2005), the two currently accepted LeontodonAzorean endemic species are members of the tribe Lactuceae subtribe Hypochaeridinae Less. (syn. Leontodontinae Hoffm.), they were originally described in the genus Crepis L. by Francis Masson (Hort. Kew, 1789), but transferred to Microderis DC., by A. De Candolle (Prod.7:127, 1838) with the type-specie Microderis rigens (Aiton.) DC. (=Crepis rigens Ait.). Seubert in Flora Azorica (1844) adds two more Azorean species in the Microderis genus (M. filii Hochst, ex Seubert and M. umbellata Hochst. ex Seubert). Bentham and Hooke in 1873 included the Azorean species in the genus Picris (M.rigens and M. umbellata = P. rigens; M. filii = P. filii), Hoffman (1894) on his monography of Compositae (in ENGL: & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4, 5: 363) on a final note says that on his opinion the genus Microderis DC., with the two species from Azores should belong to the Section of LeontodonL. instead of the genus Picris L., Hansen (1971) while referring to Microderis DC. added that “ This conception seems quit unacceptable as this genus most likely is closely related to the genus Leontodon, but best of all it should be treated as a separate genus”. Paiva and Ormonde (Bol. Soc. Brot., 1972) in their revision of Picris L. species, concluded that the Azorean species should be included in the Leontodongenus as Leontodonrigens (Ait.) J. Paiva & J. Ormonde and Leontodonfilii (Hochst. ex Seubert) J. Paiva & J. Ormonde. Both species are rosettiform perennial herbs and their mid-yellow to lemon-yellow ligulate capitula have paleaceous receptacles and transversely rugose achenes with plumose pappus setae (Paiva & Ormonde, 1974). Lack (1981) in his study of the Lactuceae of the Azorean islands demonstrated in a cytology essay of root-tip mitoses, that L. filii and L. rigens have 14 chromosomes and are diploids plants. Which was an important breakthrough in science of these endemic plants, because it allowed new genetic methodologies in the development of specific markers to study the members of this genus.

There is an sustained evidence that anthropometric and derived indicators are related to undernutrition and nutrition risk (6–9). However, previous evidence on the association of anthropometric and derived indicators with LOS is contradictory. Whereas in some studies an association between triceps skinfold thickness (TST), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), adductor pollicis muscle thickness (APMT), mid-upper arm muscle area (AMA) and mid-upper arm muscle circumference (AMC) with longer LOS has been shown (1,7,10–15), in others this association was not found (1,7,12,16–23). However, it is important to highlight that LOS may be influenced by many factors other than nutritional status and in some of the mentioned studies, the association between anthropometric and derived indicators with LOS was not adjusted for possible confounding variables (7,12,18,20,22). Furthermore, in only one study discharge destination was taken into account and it was shown that MUAC had the greatest influence on LOS. However, this study sample was confined to patients with neoplasms (1). Survival analysis has the advantage of allowing to define the main outcome variable, such as discharge to usual residence, and to treat LOS as a continuous variable.

see ACTITIS, TRINGA. see ANTHUS herthelottli, COLUMBA pruumhUB, FRINGILLA lebs, PETRONIA petronia, REGULUS igoicaplllus. coe- see DENDROCOPUS, DRYOBATES, PICUS, PUFFINUS.[r]

Abstract Sampling benthic communities usually requires intensive field and lab work which is generally performed by skilled staff. In algal dominated com- munities, like those on the shores of the Azores, biotope characterization studies focused on the more conspicuous algae categories, thus reducing the skills required for species identification. The present study compares in situ quadrat quantifications done by a skilled reader, with computer based quadrat quantifi- cations using digital photographic records of the same areas read in situ, accomplished by skilled and non- skilled readers. The study was conducted inter- and subtidally at various shore heights/depths. Quantifica- tion of algal coverage, both in situ and computer based, used the point to point method with quadrats of 0.25 m · 0.25 m for the intertidal, and 0.50 m · 0.50 m for the subtidal surveys, both subdivided into 36 intersection points. Significant differences were found

Abstract The length of hospital stay (LOS) is an important measure of efficiency in the use of hospital resources. Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), as one of the diseases with higher mortality and LOS variability in the OECD countries, has been studied with predominant use of administrative data, particularly on mortality risk adjustment, failing investigation in the resource planning and specifically in LOS. This paper presents results of a predictive model for extended LOS (LOSE - above 75th percentile of LOS) using both adminis- trative and clinical data, namely laboratory data, in order to develop a decision support system. Laboratory and adminis- trative data of a Portuguese hospital were included, using lo- gistic regression to develop this predictive model. A model with three laboratory data and seven administrative data var- iables (six comorbidities and age≥69 years), with excellent discriminative ability and a good calibration, was obtained. The model validation shows also good results. Comorbidities were relevant predictors, mainly diabetes with complications, showing the highest odds of LOSE (OR=37,83; p=0,001). AMI patients with comorbidities (diabetes with complica- tions, cerebrovascular disease, shock, respiratory infections, pulmonary oedema), with pO2 above level, aged 69 years or

It is estimated that 10.000 grape cultivars are being cultivated today worldwide but DNA fingerprinting sets the number to about 5000 due to the fact that many of them are the same (This et al., 2006). Existing genetic variability resulted from a long period before and after grapevine domestication and various mechanisms such as mutations, sexual propagation (deliberate breeding or natural crossings), and somatic mutations (This et al., 2006). Although a high level of genetic variability exists for V. vinifera only a small percentage is being used today which can potentially limit adaptation of plants in future climate change. Data obtained from French nurseries indicate that 30 genotypes represent 85% of the total production and 10 genotypes accounted for over 65% of planting material in France (www.franceagrimer.fr). Besides France, new world wine producing countries such as the USA, Australia and New Zealand are also using even fewer varieties (Wolkovich et al., 2018) with limited genetic variation. In spite of that fact, Wolkovich et al., (2018) claimed that V.vinifera already possess enough genetic diversity to mitigate climate change effects whereas other researchers (Ollat et al., 2015) claim that even late ripening grape varieties from Southern regions (e.g. Xinomavro from Greece, Carignan from Spain) are not able to expand ripening the period in the Bordeaux region and in some cases they ripe even earlier as compared to the variety Petit Verdot that is being used. Despite these limitations, germplasm of Vitis genus can be used in order to create novel plant & genotypes better adapted to changing climatic conditions possessing desirable characteristics in terms of sugar accumulation, organic acids content and secondary metabolites.

It is generally considered that γ‐GT activity is higher in male gender (Song et al., 2007) and  that it is the main regulator of GSH circulating concentrations (Giral et al., 2008). Therefore a  negative  correlation  between  the  two  parameters  was  expected,  as  observed  by  other  authors (Sedda et al., 2008). However, in this study, only less than one‐quarter of individuals  with  low  GSH  levels  exhibited  a  serum  γ‐GT  activity  above  normal  values.  Other  reasons  could  explain  the  occurrence  of  low  plasma  GSH  levels:  a  decreased  GSH  synthesis  inside  cells  (Cys  availability  does  not  seem  to  be  a  limiting  factor,  but  its  influx  could  be  one);  a  deficiency  on  GSH  efflux  by  GSH  transporters;  and/or  a  large  utilization  of  GSH  by  cells,  namely in antioxidant defense. Further research is needed to clarify this point. 

Finally,  we  can  conclude  several  findings  from  our  research.  First,  productivity  is  the  most  important  determinant  for  internationalization  that  firms  should  give  considerable  attention.  Higher  productivity  firms  are  more  close to success in international markets. Second, firm Size is not an important  factor  for  internationalization,  which  suggests  that  not  only  large  firms  can  internationalize,  but  even  small  and  medium  firms  can  succeed  in  foreign  markets.  In  other  words,  this  means  that  size  is  not  a  barrier  for  internationalization.  Third,  even  though  literature  has  emphasized  the  importance  of  innovation  for  internationalization,  our  findings  show  that  innovation  is  not  important  for  internationalization,  which  suggest  that  innovative and non‐innovative firms can internationalize. Fourth, international  trade  fairs  are  also  not  an  important  determinant  for  internationalization,  suggesting that exhibiting at international trade fairs is not essential to success in  foreign markets. Fifth, the structure of management and the number of formal  meetings do not have effect on internationalization. Sixth, government assistance  is also not an important determinant for internationalization. In other words, this  means  that  firms  can  internationalize  without  receiving  assistance  from  government. Seventh, there are unobserved characteristics that have a significant  impact on internationalization. However, they are not included in our research.  Our  model  has  captured  these  unobserved  characteristics  through  firm  fixed  effects, but defining them need further research.  

However, not all variables may be exogenous. Police expenditures and gun ownership may be endogenous and dependent upon crime rates. In order to assess this situation, we will use instruments to account for possible endogeneity and explain our endogenous variables. We will consider four possible instruments. First, we will look at total local area government revenue per capita; wealthier area governments are more likely to allocate higher amounts of money to police forces independently of crime. Secondly, we will look non-police expenditure as a share of total revenue, because counties spending at higher levels will likely spend more on their police departments as well. Third, we will look at per capita income, because richer residents can afford more independent crime protection, both by security personnel and by taking the necessary classes and tests to earn a concealed handgun license (and possibly purchase a firearm). The fourth instrument is ratio of firearm instructors to citizens eligible for weapons licenses, as this indicates how convenient it is to obtain a license.