Abstract:
Airports, as fundamental nodes of the air transport network, reflect the economic status of
the region they serve and act as major engines of economic development, as was stated in
ACI 2004. The impact of regional tourist airports on their region is more important due to
the fact that there is a high interrelation between airports and tourism. A growing literature
on this subject highlights the methods used to calculate the total effect of an airport on
regional economy, and the difficulties entailed in such calculations.
Τhe key objectives of this research are to develop an econometric assessment model based
on a computational modelling concept that will estimate the economic impact of Regional
Tourist Airports on Regional economy. The modelling framework is based on the Input
Output Analysis concept and is in accordance with the theoretical principles of regional
and national Economics, as well as all the reviewed models which have been developed
globally, in order to assess the regional economic significance of airports and transportation
projects. The case study of the research is the new airport in the Island of Crete in Greece,
one of the most attractive tourist destinations in southeast Mediterranean.
Conventional wisdom dictates the presentation of a Computational Input Output Model,
appropriate for this purpose, in order to quantify the total value of the new airport
operation in terms of jobs and income, at a regional and national level. The Economic
impact that the Model will estimate includes four categories of impact: direct, indirect,
induced and catalytic. The model outputs will measure these impacts in terms of Jobs, total
Income and Total growth of GDP.
The goal is to create a Model, which will be appropriate for application in relevant tourism
regional airports, giving an essential tool in order to support decisions at the level of
strategic planning, providing essential results about the impact of tourist airports
developing a new airport and estimating the economic development.