Impacts originating from the tourism sector
Contents
Economic Impact of Western Mediterranean Leisure Ports
Under the GESINPORTS project (Interreg IIIC) a research study was carried out in order to produce information on the economic impacts of sports facilities on the economic development of a region facilitating thus decision making both in the public and private sector. The aim was to quantify the economic impact of each facility on the town where it is established, in terms of job creation, wages, corporate profits, tax income and the effect on the rest of town’s productive sectors. Similarly, it is also of great interest to indicate how such a facility can continue influencing economic development in the future.
This study has analysed the economic impact of a selection of leisure ports in the Valencia Region and in northern Italy on the towns where they are located. The installations that provided sufficient information for the study to be conducted are listed below:
- Oropesa Yacht Club (Oropesa)
- Royal Yacht Club of Valencia (Valencia)
- Denia Marina (Denia)
- Denia Yacht Club (Denia)
- “Les Bassetes” Yacht Club (Benisa)
- “Marina de las Dunas” Marina (Guardamar)
- Royal Yacht Club of Torrevieja (Torrevieja)
- Santa Pola Yacht Club (Santa Pola)
- Altea Yacht Club (Altea)
- “Campoamor” Yacht Club (Orihuela)
In Italy, three leisure ports have been analysed:
- Lega Navale (Province of Genova)
- Diano Marina (Province of Imperia)
- Porto Antico (Province of Genova)
The economic impact of these ports has been analyzed by means of Input-Output methodology using Input Ouput Tables for the town where the leisure port is located. The basic information used were regional IOT tables, published by the Region of Valencia for the Spanish part of the case study, and the national IOT table for the Italian part of the study. In order to obtain sufficiently detailed results, we used further information from a publication by “La Caixa”1 (2005) on the towns where facilities are located, which makes it possible to elaborate IOT for each of them. In a similar way the national Italian IOT was updated and specified for the Liguria region.
Results Obtained for Leisure Ports in Valencia
Analysing the economic impact of leisure ports, provides a point of reference for public and private sector decision making related to the port sector. In addition to this, results will make it possible to compare sports structures as the same methodology has been used in all cases and an attempt has been made to focus on the town where ports are located or the nearest area of influence as in the case of Italian installations. In the first place, purchase structures and the value added to infrastructures are analysed to determine the presence of possible significant differences between the two. Later, in order to simplify observations, the economic impact results obtained from quantifying the initial, direct, indirect and induced effects are presented in an aggregated form.
Purchase Structure
The purchase structure of nautical-sports facilities was obtained from surveys and the annual accounts of the individual leisure ports under study. After analysing these data, it can be appreciated that while there are important differences across ports, at least two sectors stand out in all of them: in goods, “Energy” and in services, the branch of activity called “Other Market Services” [Table 1]. “Energy” represents up to 40% of purchases in some facilities, such as Oropesa Yacht Club. This branch of activity encompasses the following types of products: fuel, electricity, gas, water and residual collection. All these products are necessary for the users of these facilities to be able to carry out their nautical and leisure activities.
“Other market services” are important in proportion to the rest of supplies due to the nature of the business activity these facilities conduct. It is important to bear in mind that this sector includes the following types of services: educational, health, social, associative, recreational, cultural, sports and other personal services. More specifically, the Yacht Clubs in Denia, Orihuela (“Campoamor”) and Torrevieja more than 35% of their expenses to these activities. However, in “Marina de las Dunas” and Denia Marina these services are not as relevant, as their activity is less recreational than that of yacht clubs.
It is also worth mentioning the “Trade and Repairs” sector, which differs in order of importance depending on the facility, but accounts for more than 10% of expenses in most due to the constant maintenance and repairs that infrastructures and above all vessels require. Other relevant sectors depending on the individual situation and configuration of each port are “Construction” and “Financial Intermediation”, together with “Real Estate Agencies and Business Services” in the case of the Royal Yacht Club of Valencia and “Machinery” in the facilities in Denia, Santa Pola and Altea.
Table 1: Nautical Facility Purchase Structure (2004)
| Sector | OROPESA YACHT CLUB | R.Y.C. of VALENCIA | DENIA MARINA | DENIA YACHT CLUB | LES BASSETES Y.C. | MARINA DE DUNAS |
| Agriculture | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Energy | 40.29% | 9.48% | 31.86% | 13.99% | 34.12% | 28.46% |
| Food | 0.00% | 0.95% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Clothing and Footwear | 1.48% | 1.33% | 7.66% | 2.81% | 1.30% | 1.84% |
| Chemical Industry | 7.91% | 3.79% | 0.00% | 0.51% | 0.32% | 9.80% |
| Other Non-metallic Products | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Metallurgy | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Machinery | 0.00% | 0.57% | 21.49% | 5.10% | 3.65% | 0.00% |
| Electrical Equipment | 0.00% | 0.57% | 0.00% | 0.54% | 0.54% | 0.00% |
| Transport Material | 1.90% | 1.33% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 2.36% |
| Misc. Manufactures | 0.00% | 0.95% | 5.13% | 0.89% | 0.87% | 16.99% |
| Construction | 0.00% | 8.10% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Trade and Repairs | 29.01% | 12.16% | 4.44% | 9.50% | 8.74% | 20.49% |
| Hotels and Restaurants | 0.00% | 1.62% | 4.01% | 2.24% | 3.55% | 0.00% |
| Transport & Communications | 0.07% | 2.43% | 1.34% | 1.91% | 4.30% | 0.05% |
| Financial Intermediation | 2.25% | 8.10% | 6.01% | 3.75% | 10.68% | 7.91% |
| Real Estate Agencies and Business Services | 6.96% | 20.26% | 9.00% | 2.97% | 6.69% | 4.91% |
| Other Market Services | 10.13% | 28.37% | 9.06% | 55.80% | 25.25% | 7.19% |
| Non-market Services | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Value Added Structure and Employment
Value added structure [Table 2] reveals how more than 80% is accounted for by income distributed between employee compensation and the gross operating surplus. Notwithstanding, differences between these two items can be appreciated within each leisure port.
The gross operating surplus is not as important an item, as can be observed in Table 2, as it would be in any other type of company, due to the non-profit-making nature of yacht clubs. In fact, it is even negative in the case of Denia Yacht Club, “Marina de las Dunas” and Santa Pola Yacht Club. Another feature of this type of organisation is that they are subsidised by the government, which means quite low or even negative net indirect taxes (Royal Yacht Club of Valencia, Les Bassetes Yacht Club, “Marina de las Dunas”, Royal Yacht Club of Torrevieja).
In the majority of facilities, the most important item is wages. As these organisms do not share profits, employee wages are more important than the rest of the items that make up value added. However, in the case of Oropesa Yacht Club, the Royal Yacht Club of Valencia, Denia Marina and the Royal Yacht Club of Torrevieja, both employee wages and the gross operating surplus are relevant.
Employment information is somewhat disguised by the fact that yacht clubs subcontract services, as can be appreciated in the information referring to the purchase of services. On many occasions, such services are hired on a personal basis and as a result are not clearly portrayed in the situation of marinas or the companies that provide the services. Identifying such services remains difficult because they are not recorded as employment by the port or the services company.
Table 2: Nautical Facility Value Added Structure (2004)
| OROPESA YACHT CLUB | R.Y.C. of VALENCIA | DENIA MARINA | DENIA YACHT CLUB | LES BASSETES Y.C. | MARINA DE DUNAS | R.Y.C. of TORREVIEJA | SANTA POLA Y.C. | ALTEA YACHT CLUB |
