CAST dynamic modeling of competitive tourism destinations: Gran Canaria and its Nordic markets

Abstract

In this paper we consider tourism data as influenced by a number of economic and political factors expressed in a set of parameters within a classical, but retouched, CAST model: tourism is a complex reality that needs a not-so-simple approach. Starting on a general scheme consisting of two destinations that feed upon a market of total population P, we proceed by systematically studying its properties and various theoretical cases according to classical systems theory. At every step, real touristic correlates are explained and results compared with data from the evolving touristic situation of a specific destination, namely, Gran Canaria, and its tourism flow coming from its main northern Europe markets: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.