**2. Air transport and tourism**

The relationship and the complexity between tourism and air transport have been an investigation area in many researches. As analysed in Refs. [1, 2], any changes in tourism business environment are closely linked to air transport industry fluctuations as well as socioeconomic development, and any restrictions on air transport development may lead to constrains in connectivity, accessibility and mobility. Tourism demand for air transport is strongly related with global economy, trade and population, changes and innovation [3, 4]. Air transport is a demand-driven industry where the origin-destination pairs and mode choice are defined by the cost, time and level of service variables. The population distribution, the tourism choices and the trade and consumption patterns are key factors that determine the air transport market and mobility [1]. All these factors have significant effects for the economies especially in remote tourist destinations where the highest share of their income is generated by tourism delivered by air transport.

The tourism industry of extremely competitive and fragile business environment leads tourism industry and authorities continuously encourage air transports for lower prices, more capacity and additional connectivity, promoting those as key drivers towards higher tourist demand and financial sustainability for both, transport and tourism sectors. In addition, the market tendency for growing leisure travelling, especially in holiday periods, along with the fast-changing technology and the continuing booming of e-commerce, resulting strong air transport growth and this tendency is estimated to continue in next decade, according to estimations and forecast delivered by global organization, national institutes and air transport authorities. Therefore, key counterpart of the effective regional strategic planning includes plans and decisions for investments to improve efficiency and grow capacity in air transport infrastructures. In other words, the timely and financially efficient allocation of capitals to air transport infrastructure is a key success factor on strategic planning process, affecting not just

However, the complexities of today's global economy and the uncertainty in investments to infrastructure projects with long payback period and high volatility in patterns such aviation and tourism, rising business and financial risks leading to high complexity in decisions, i.e., the decision for a new runway may take some decades. In addition, the large range of stakeholders that involved in the decision process is also an essential issue that must deal with. Considering the limitations of the real-world life, the decision-making key question deals with economic benefits subject to operational, financial and competition restrictions. Agencies, authorities and stakeholders need accurate estimations about the overall impacts on the regional and national economy to support investment decisions and define policies towards improvement of connectivity networks and accessibility infrastructures. Therefore, the assessment of any business scenario has to be supported by short- and long-term economic impact assessment providing clear message to decision-makers about the existing and

Key objective of this chapter is to quantify the economic impact of air transport on regions that heavily depended on outbound tourism. By a top-down analysis, the key trends of tourism and aviation market are highlighted, providing the linkage between these two industries. According to a systemic approach, the methodology concept and the modelling are presented, providing the framework for relevant case studies. Conventional wisdom is to provide an easyto-handle tool appropriate for relevant case studies and highlight key messages to decisionmakers, stakeholders and aviation authorities in their strategic decisions regarding air transport market development. The case studies presented in this chapter are related to Mediterranean region and focused on Greece, which is a very attractive summer holiday tourist destination.

The relationship and the complexity between tourism and air transport have been an investigation area in many researches. As analysed in Refs. [1, 2], any changes in tourism business environment are closely linked to air transport industry fluctuations as well as socioeconomic development, and any restrictions on air transport development may lead to constrains in connectivity, accessibility and mobility. Tourism demand for air transport is strongly related with global economy,

air transport and tourism sectors but also the regional economy as a whole.

future socioeconomic benefits in regional economy.

144 Mobilities, Tourism and Travel Behavior - Contexts and Boundaries

**2. Air transport and tourism**

As highlighted in Ref. [5], the key drivers of the tourism growth in a specific destination deal with the macroeconomic economic environment of the origins and the destinations, the transport cost and the regulations as well as the supply chain and performance. The passenger's decision for choosing the most suitable holiday option depends on a variety of factors such as the consumer profile, the distance of the final destination, the transport options and the price of services [6]. In Refs. [7, 8], it is claimed that the complexity of the tourist consumer's decision process and the transportation accessibility level of service are correlated to tourism market trends.

Institutions, associations, authorities and governmental bodies, widely, recognise the need for monitoring tourism demand and adopt strategies to achieve the economic benefits of tourism. According to Ref. [9], many regions draw a considerable part of their income from the tourism industry, which in turn is heavily dependent on the aviation industry. Therefore, on a national scale, the relationship between aviation and tourism needs to be investigated not only to extrapolate the demand trends but also to adopt policies, defines strategies and supports decisions towards tourism market growth.

In principal, the concept of sustainable air transport faces the challenge that decision-makers of all functions of air transport, economic and social system could consider different perspectives. These different expectations may lead to conflicts in planning and implementation of strategic plans, making authorities defend to demand growth.

The sustainability of air transport sector is based on demand variables on the one hand and supply variables on the other [10]. These variables are affected by the transport business, the economy conditions and the social values of the region, as analytically described in **Figure 1**.

Special care should be given to environmental implications that may have a range of diverse impacts on transport and tourism sector and services especially for the remote tourist destinations. These implications may vary significantly by region and depend on the local or regional circumstances and vulnerabilities, including those associated with the natural environment, as well as many socioeconomic factors [1].

The related demand variables such as the transport cost, per capita income, social security, education and health and the related supply variables as transport asset portfolio, working force capital and non-tangible capitals affect the decision-making process in order to improve the air transport sector efficiency and lead to the equilibrium between air transport sustainability and economic development.

Air transport sector demand variables and economic system supply variables interact with each other as air transport makes significant direct and indirect contributions to the economy and increases the cycle of economic activity. In addition, air transport, as an indicator of a network's concentration and its ability to move passengers from their origin to their destination,

**Figure 1.** Demand-supply variable decision-making in air transport industry (source: [1]).

creates wider economic benefits of trade in services and goods, tourism, foreign direct investment, productivity and innovation.
