A cultural analysis of the secondary housing tourism in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to determine the level of satisfaction of secondary housing tourists in Vilcabamba. Design/methodology/approach The analysis of satisfaction of this tourism segment in a destination is essential for the different economic agents when evaluating various policies. The analysis is based on the answers provided to 16 items in a questionnaire administered to a representative sample (281 respondents). The authors have used the fuzzy logic to reduce ambiguity in the answers associated to subjective views of human beings who express themselves linguistically. A method based on the degree of similarity to ideal solutions has been used to obtain a classification of relevant satisfaction items. Findings The results indicate that the ideal solutions segments are represented by multicultural characteristics of second home tourists and the number of years they have been visiting Vilcabamba. The authors find that foreign tourists are more satisfied than Ecuadorians. Analyzing the most critical factors, it is seen that accessibility to the destination, socio-cultural environment and quality of water achieve a high priority. Research limitations/implications Second home tourists’ satisfaction has been studied with a limited set of 16 attributes, and some attributes also have a multidimensional nature, so a further study analyzing the scale will be needed in the future. Originality/value The present study fills an existing gap in the literature of secondary housing tourism where the existing previous research has been mainly focused on retirees’ secondary housing tourism. The study provides interesting insights into local and national authorities, as well as other economic agents, to designing strategies and planning processes of the destinations for secondary housing tourists.

Analyzing the Main Determinants for Being an Immigrant in Cuenca (Ecuador) Based on a Fuzzy Clustering Approach

“…Another interesting remark of the table is that the vagueness of the information is properly handled with fuzzy logic because all the consecutive TFNs overlap. A further discussion of the conversion can be consulted in [8].…”

“…The defuzzification method used in the study is based on a "center of area" method and it is known as the best-non-fuzzy weighted average that can be calculated as ((a 1 + 2 a 2 + a 3 )/4). This method is very popular and has been proposed in many previous studies [8,[55][56][57]. The method presents several advantages over other methods because it is simple and does not require any personal researcher value judgment.…”

“…Cluster analysis finds meaningful groups for which the similarities within the clusters and the dissimilarity between the groups are maximized [61]. The fuzzy cluster algorithm is presented in Equation (8). The method is an extension of the bagged cluster algorithm introduced by Leisch [62].…”

“…The situation in the European countries contrasts highly with other less developed or developing countries, such as Ecuador, which are implementing programs that favor the entrance of immigrants, especially those who want to be retired in the country [8]. This wellknown phenomenon is also studied as second-home tourism or retirement migration [9].…”

“…There are a number of reasons that can influence the migrants in deciding whether to settle in another country; these depend on different traits, such as income, cultural background and lifestyle [10,11]. Martín and Bustamante-Sánchez [8] categorized the main reasons to be retired immigrants as: (1) improving the quality of life; (2) retiring and living in countries that they knew on their vacation; (3) looking for a lower cost of life and warmer climates; (4) moving out to escape from their home countries or to be away from relatives; (5) knowing different people, cultures and places; (6) relaxing in quieter cities and towns where they can live away from noise and globalization; and (7) adjusting the preferences according to the place attachment.…”