Tourism competitiveness and the well-being of residents: a debate on registered and non-registered accommodation establishments

Abstract

The literature on the competitiveness of tourist destinations establishes as its ultimate objective the well-being of the resident population. In Spain, the principal tourism product (sun and beach) has given rise to two basic types of destinations - those where there is a clear predominance of registered accommodation (mainly hotels) and those that are characterised by a supply largely made up of rental apartments and housing (non-registered, or sometimes known as the residential or second home model). The debate on the issue has been focusing on the different economic, social, cultural or environmental impacts that the two tourism models have on the territory. This article explores the economic aspect of the debate, comparing the differences existing in terms of income and employment in a pool of coastal destinations in the Region of Valencia, one of the leading tourism regions of the sun and beach tourism product in Spain and Europe. This comparison is done by way of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing and regression analysis. The results obtained indicate the neutrality of the composition of the accommodation supply on income and employment of destinations.