Jorge Ridderstaat

University of Central Florida | UCF · Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Developments in households’ net financial wealth may be a better determinant of tourism demand flows than income. This study investigates the effect of cycles of US households’ net financial position on US tourism demand flows for three destinations (Aruba, Barbados, and Jamaica). The literature has conventionally considered income as a key driver...

This study investigates the influence of the number of tourism arrivals on the physical health of local people in one of the most-visited destinations in the world. Although the literature traditionally describes the economic, social, and cultural impacts of tourism, there is a gap related to the effects of tourism on residents' health. The methodo...

A research problem is presented from the inherent devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry: restaurants are now faced with mounting expenses and limited revenue due to mandatory closures of dining rooms. As an example of the problem for the industry, Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) – the torchbearer of the U.S. foodser...

People’s tourism demand decisions can be affected by perceived shifts in their finances. This study investigates how perceptions of financial positions can affect people’s decisions to consume tourism, using US households as a study case. The literature has given a prominent role to income as a determinant of tourism demand. However, the effect of...

This study provides an analytical framework of smart tourism specialization, integrating smart tourism, tourism specialization, and nations’ competitive advantage. The resulting model incorporates a process of tourism specialization, distinguishing between envisioned and realized tourism specialization. The model’s dynamic nature originates from th...

This article examines the academic research conducted by universities in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and aims to identify and comprehend its distinctive features, as well as its significance to the respective host countries. An analysis of the 327 narrow Scopus fields of the 167,080 journal articles published by 38 SIDS between 2010 and 2...

The case study of Aruba’s tourism industry showcases how the island quickly bounces back from different crises, thanks to its varied tourist attractions, successful marketing as “One Happy Island,” and solid collaborations between the government and private sector. Aruba’s ability to adapt demonstrates its strength in facing challenges, making it a...

This paper introduces Heliyon's Business and Management Section, established in 2023 as a platform committed to maintaining rigorous ethical and scientific publishing standards within the field. Prioritizing scientific correctness and technical soundness over mere novelty, it encompasses a wide range of research domains, encouraging contributions f...

The road to understanding the relationship between tourism development and quality of life is riddled with research imbalances and limitations that stimulate study variety rather than depth. This inquiry investigates the state of research on tourism development and quality of life nexus by reviewing two previous study scans and conducting a separat...

A global pandemic can provide new opportunities and challenges for the tourism industry. When most entertainment events and recreation activities were canceled or postponed during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, many operators introduced online offerings, such as virtual tours and streaming services. These factors, along with t...

Tourism development (TD) greatly depends on tourist destination residents to develop and deliver goods and services to tourists; it is intricately connected with destination residents' quality of life (QOL) and requires an adequate workforce (primarily associated with destination population development). Therefore, this study investigates the relat...

This study applied an integrative approach to understanding the connection between tourism development and poverty, with the mediating roles of human development and economic growth. The investigation introduced a framework termed Tourism-Poverty Interdependence Diamond that conceptualizes the relationships between tourism development, economic gro...

The study investigates whether governance and human agency act as intervening factors in the context of destination competitiveness and human development. This study employs the capability approach—that is, operationalizing human agency from an empowerment (feminist) perspective—and employed a case study research strategy to highlight the criticali...

Tourism brings with it both positive and negative health impacts on local communities. Although the topic of health in tourism is traditionally associated with tourists’ health, there are potential opportunities to study the influence of tourism on residents’ health as well. This study aims at exploring the direct and indirect effects of tourism de...

The figure represents daily data on news sentiment score in the US in 2020-2021. The daily data on news sentiment were obtained from the Daily News Sentiment Index (Buckman et al., 2020). The news sentiment scores are developed from economics-related news articles in major U.S. newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post by us...

The data on attitudes towards tourism were obtained by using a social media listening platform (using the search term “tourism”) that provides a social media library with more than a trillion historical and real-time posts across a variety of social media contexts. The total number of daily mentions of tourism in the US over time was considered as...

The data on attitudes towards tourism were obtained by using a social media listening platform (using the search term “tourism”) that provides a social media library with more than a trillion historical and real-time posts across a variety of social media contexts. The share of voice for negative sentiment towards tourism during the selected time p...

The data on attitudes towards tourism were obtained by using a social media listening platform (using the search term “tourism”) that provides a social media library with more than a trillion historical and real-time posts across a variety of social media contexts. The share of voice for positive sentiment towards tourism during the selected time p...

The health tourism literature has covered several topics, but studies on the workings of health tourism demand and prices are still under-highlighted. This study investigates US outbound health tourism demand and price developments (real exchange rates) for 50 destinations, using outbound health tourism spending as a reference variable. The study a...

To better understand travel and hospitality consumers’ purchasing behavior amidst a worldwide emergency commonly referenced as COVID-19, the present research set out to assess the impacts of sensation-seeking, consumer affect, and risk-taking attitude on consumers’ willingness to purchase travel-related activities. A sample of 775 adult U.S. consum...

This study estimates the short and long-term impacts of Chinese tourists on Vietnam's five leading inbound tourist markets. While most prior studies perceive crowding as an undesirable phenomenon relating to visitors' dissatisfaction and lower perceived destination attraction, this study extends the understanding of crowding's impacts on tourism by...

COVID-19 has significantly influenced tourism, including tourists’ and residents’ attitudes toward tourism. At the same time, attitudes and consumer confidence are important for economic recovery in the tourism sector. This study explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s attitudes toward tourism by analyzing time-series data on the...

The figure represents the numbers of tourism arrivals, income, and happiness in six Central American countries in 2019. Costa Rica demonstrates the highest number of visitors (3.14 million arrivals in 2019) and the highest happiness (7.00 out of 10.00). Panama has the highest income per capita ($11910 in 2019) with a lower happiness score (6.09 out...

Well-being is considered one of the highest values in human life. Although previous studies have discussed the tourists’ well-being outcomes, the impact of tourism on residents’ happiness has received less empirical attention in tourism research. This study aims to explore the effects of tourism development on residents’ happiness in a group of cou...

The present study sought to analyze how hospitality service consumption changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a national survey of U.S. consumers, the effects of customer affect were tested using regression analysis with squared values to ascertain their impact on consumer behavior. Results revealed the impact of negative customer affecti...

Promoting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must contend with the often siloed nature of governance institutions, making the identification of cooperative institutional networks that promote SDG targets a priority. We develop and apply a method that combines SDG interaction analysis, which helps determine prerequisites for SDG attainment, wi...

This study examines the relationship between tourism specialization economic growth, and human development in a transition economy. It proffers a conceptual link between tourism specialization and human development through a division of labor framework. Dynamic comparative advantage, Sen's capability approach, and the translog production function c...

This study proposes a framework for classifying the causal effects of tourism demand seasonality, linking between season effects (interseason) with within season effects (intraseason). The literature has typically investigated the causes of tourism demand seasonality as isolated static factors, mostly ignoring the possibility of interseason and int...

Tourism markets are heterogeneous, and their performance and effects can be better understood when considered separately. This paper investigates the linkages between tourism demand from several markets and quality of life, using Hong Kong as a case of study. The literature has, initially only considered a unilateral relationship running from aggre...

Health tourism is a booming billion-dollar business, which has attracted the attention of academia and industry. Most of the research conducted on health tourism has been conceptual or has mainly focused on health tourism activities from developed to developing countries. This study investigates the impact of tourism demand on health-related touris...

This paper investigates how public policies, such as taxes and regulations influence firm formation (birth) and closure (death) in the hospitality and other industries in the United States (US), using an institutional economics approach and the dimensions of the Economic Freedom of North America (EFNA) index. The literature has been scant when it c...

This study presents the Tourism Competitiveness Theory Hypothesis, anchored on a dynamic framework, and unifying the competitiveness theory with human development. The hypothesis rests on the recursive nature between tourism competitiveness and human development. The relationship was tested through a mixed-effect regression model in ten South Ameri...

The tourism literature associated with well-being mainly centers on the impact of tourism on the well-being of tourists and residents (Croes, Rivera & Semrad, 2018). Well-being as a concept invokes emotional (hedonic) and cognitive (eudaimonia) dimensions. The ideal form of tourism development does not compromise the well-being of the local people,...

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require coordinated policymaking for achievement. Aruba is a Small Island State (SIDS) with 90% of its jobs and GDP dependent on the oceans has prioritized SDG 14 – life below water, or the SDG Ocean goal – for achievement. We have developed a planning process, building off of the the literatu...

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require coordinated policymaking for achievement. Aruba is a Small Island State (SIDS) with 90% of its jobs and GDP dependent on the oceans has prioritized SDG 14 – life below water, or the SDG Ocean goal – for achievement. We have developed a planning process, building off of the the literatu...

This study investigates the impact of fear on stock returns of the lodging companies for two specific periods (. While the literature has adequately studied the relationship for general stock returns, it has underemphasized a sector-based approach, including the lodging industry, toward understanding the connection. The study contributes to the lit...

This study investigates the short-and long-term effects of time on restaurant sanitation inspection results in Montgomery County (USA). Restaurants are an important constituent of the hospitality industry and could benefit from a time-based dynamic approach towards preventing foodborne-related crises. This investigation contributes to advancing the...

This study investigates the impact of key inbound visitor markets on health tourism spending in the United States (US), for the period 1986–2016. Although there is a wealth of studies on health tourism, the emphasis on inferential research has inadvertently been neglected. The research uses secondary data and considers both short- and long-term per...

This study assesses the relationship between quality of life (QOL), tourism specialization, and economic growth as applied to small island destinations. The study is grounded on a QOL model and translog production function and employs the limited information maximum likelihood estimator to investigate the nature of this relationship in Malta. Resul...

This volume focuses on the management of tourism in island environments, particularly in the Caribbean. The first part of the book (chapters 2-5) is about resources for islands, including transport and hospitality, and demand for islands. This part addresses the core resources of tourism products and services to suggest principles and practices to...

This study examines the relationship between business and tourism demand cycles in Aruba and Barbados during 1970–2015. The study uses a 2SLS method and is grounded in the output gap approach. The results indicate that business cycles explain nearly 49% of tourism demand flows to Aruba and nearly 91% to Barbados. Thus, the study sheds light on the...

This study examines the liaison between business cycles and tourism demand flows to Aruba and Barbados by considering the between- and within-dimensions of business cycle effects. The study demonstrates that business cycles have a causal, dynamic bearing on tourism demand cycles, depending on the intrinsic dimensions that connect the two cycles. Th...

This study estimates the influence of long cyclical climate patterns of pull and push climate elements (rainfall, temperature, wind) on cyclical fluctuations in tourism demand from the United States, the Netherlands and Venezuela on a small island state. Two important atmospheric variabilities, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North...

Many countries and regions could be susceptible to several types of vulnerabilities. This study investigates the vulnerability of small island destinations with a view to international tourism. Specifically, the study assesses the vulnerability of these regions for international tourist markets and the travel distance of these visitors, considering...

Many countries and regions could be susceptible to several types of vulnerabilities. This study investigates the vulnerability of small island destinations with a view to international tourism. Specifically, the study assesses the vulnerability of these regions for international tourist markets and the travel distance of these visitors, considering...

This study postulates that tourism development (TD) and residents' quality of life (QoL) may have an intrinsically reciprocal relationship. The possible connection between TD and QoL is investigated in the island of Aruba, with economic development as a mediating variable. This investigation contributes to the literature by emphasizing the active r...

This study investigates whether money supply cycles in Canada, United Kingdom, and United States affect tourism demand cycles for Aruba and Barbados. Money supply data are, generally, more easily available than business cycle data (gross domestic product) and have the potential to influence tourism demand cycles. The study contributes to the litera...

Vegetation is an important ecosystem on earth. It influences the earth system in many ways. Any influences on this fragile variable should be investigated, especially in a changing climate. Humans can have a positive or a negative influence on plants. This paper investigates the possible impact of tourism development and economic growth on vegetati...

Seasonality is a frequent and important occurrence in the tourism industry, with concurrent effects on both the financial and volume flows of tourism. The purpose of this study is to measure pattern, amplitude and timing differences between the seasonal factors of monetary and non-monetary indicators of tourism development in Aruba. The study contr...

Met de verdwijning van Natalee Holloway in 2005 ontstond een media-aandacht voor Aruba. Die aandacht heeft significante gevolgen gehad voor de Arubaanse economie. In een speurtocht naar de gevolgen van haar verdwijning vinden de economen Hassink, De Kort en Ridderstaat dat dit een negatief effect had op de Arubaanse economie van tussen de 0,5 en 2,...

This study investigates tourism demand in a small island destination. Tourism demand dynamics could be triggered by a broader range of factors, associated with time-dimensions and reciprocal effects, than what has been explicitly alluded to by the literature. This has important implications for our understanding of the drivers of tourism demand. At...

This study examines the long-run relationship between tourism development and economic growth in a small island destination. Determining whether the nature of the relationship is unidirectional or bidirectional provides insightful information as to policies to be implemented. This information is crucial in a resource-poor environment, such as a sma...

This study estimates the bilateral effects between seasonal patterns of dengue incidences and the recurring fluctuations of both stay-over tourism and cruise tourism. Seasonal patterns were first isolated from the series using the Census X-12 decomposition method, after which the analysis included panel data unit root testing, panel data regression...

Tourism development (TD) and quality of life (QoL) have been studied mostly from the perspective of how TD affects QoL, but the inverse relationship is less widely researched. Understanding this interrelationship will broaden the definition and goals of development, and will help shifting the debate from an income perspective to a QoL standpoint. T...

This study estimates the effect of seasonal patterns of pull and push climate elements (rainfall, temperature, wind, and cloud coverage) on recurrent fluctuations in tourism demand from the United States (USA) and Venezuela to Aruba. The seasonal patterns were first isolated from the series using the Census X-12 decomposition method, after which th...

This paper proposes an analytical framework describing a triangle relationship between tourism development (TD), quality of life (QoL) of residents, and shocks or disturbances (SoD). The impacts of TD on QoL have been studied extensively in the literature, but the possible effects of QoL on TD have only been implicitly considered in some studies. M...

This paper proposes an analytical framework describing a triangle relationship between tourism development (TD), quality of life (QoL) of residents, and shocks or disturbances (SoD). The impacts of TD on QoL have been studied extensively in the literature, but the possible effects of QoL on TD have only been implicitly considered in some studies. M...

Seasonality is a frequent and important occurrence in the tourism industry, with concurrent effects on both the financial and volume flows of tourism. The purpose of this study is to measure pattern, amplitude and timing differences between the seasonal factors of monetary and non-monetary indicators of tourism development in Aruba. The study contr...

This study examines the long-run relationship between tourism development and economic growth in a small island destination. Determining whether the nature of the relationship is unidirectional or bidirectional provides insightful information as to policies to be implemented. This information is crucial in a resource-poor environment, such as a sma...

The literature on tourism development has focused on a one dimensional relationship between tourism development and quality of life. The impact of shock events on the relationship tourism development and quality of life seems ignored. Rather less attention has been paid to the multi-dimensional aspects of the relationship between tourism developmen...

The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centrale Bank van Aruba.

The Lago Story provides a unique perspective of the history of an oil company in Aruba. From the pre-oil era, the initial stages, nearly six decades of activities to its closure and the period beyond Lago. The Lago Story is a compilation of an important piece of Aruba's history. It is not only a rendition of factual occurrences, but also contains a...