Noam SHOVAL, The Hebrew university, Israel
Rotem MASHKOV, The Hebrew university, Israel
Measuring the tourism activity is an important tool for decision-makers in managing and planning the tourism destination, particularly in light of uncertainty and lack of control, such as Overtourism on the one hand and Undertourism due to global epidemic on the other. There is a gap between the traditional methods used to measure tourism activity and the existing technological supply. The technological developments of the last decade and a half allow researchers to use advanced tracking technologies to collect spatial data in real-time and estimate tourism activity more faithfully than conventional methodologies. So far, studies that used advanced tracking technologies have focused on the feasibility of those methods and less on their application in Overtourism indices. The present article has three main objectives: (1) to bridge the gap between the existing indices for tourism activity and the existing technologies, (2) to propose the application of these technologies when measuring Overtourism, and (3) to introduce a new index for Overtourism, the Overtourism Index (OTI). The article comprises three parts; First, an overview of the common indices for measuring Overtourism. Second, the most common indices, the penetration index (TPI) and the density index (TDP), were calculated twice, using traditional annual data methods and advanced tracking technologies. The second calculation is based on a survey conducted in Israel in 2017. The survey is unique in the world due to its scope (N=2689) and to its spatial coverage (National level). Third, introducing the methodology for calculating High Resolution (HR) indices using GPS data and the OTI that weights the four HR indices into one index. The use of advanced tracking technologies when calculating the HR indices helps present the tourism activity more accurately, in terms of time and space, and cope planning-wise with the phenomenon of Overtourism. The OTI is the research's unique contribution in the methodological aspect.
Mots clés : Overtourism |Advanced Tracking Technologies|Indices|Tourism Activity Measurement |GPS
A104199RM