Coastal transport as a determinant of islands attractiveness: The European case and an evaluation...

IAME 2011 conference

SANTIAGO DE CHILE, THE 25th – 28th of OCTOBER 2011 – www.iame2011.org

COASTAL SHIPPING AND ISLAND ATTRACTIVENESS: PERSPECTIVES FROM

EUROPE

MARIA B. LEKAKOU

University of the Aegean

2a Korai Str, Chios, 82100, Greece

[email protected]

+30-2271035275

+30-2271035299

ATHANASIOS A. PALLIS



[email protected]

+30-2271035275

+30-2271035299

GEORGE K. VAGGELAS



[email protected]

+30-2271035275

+30-2271035299

THOMAS VITSOUNIS



[email protected]

+30-2271035275

+30-2271035299

IAME 2011 conference


Abstract

Transport networks are vital for the prosperity of countries and local communities as they facilitate passenger and cargo flows. Especially for islands, coastal transport systems are the lifelines for the well being of the islanders. The quality and quantity of links and modes, enhances the attractiveness of the islands as areas to live and develop business. Despite of their importance for the islanders, the perspectives of the latter as regards the performance of coastal transport system(s) as facilitators of the local communities are commonly neglected. The regulatory framework (state), business strategies (market), and passengers’ satisfaction, are all parameters having a direct impact on the performance of a coastal shipping system. Yet, most frequently decision-makers focus on the two former parameters (i.e. the efficient planning, development and operation of a coastal shipping system, or the subsidization of itineraries that are not profitable and thus maintain the status of a ‘public service’ obligation) only.

Aiming to fill this knowledge gap of practical significance, the present paper confirms, with the employment of primary data the impact of coastal transport on the attractiveness of the islands as places to live and to make business. Based on the results of a relevant research project, the paper briefly presents European islanders point of view on the importance of coastal transport in their lives. Included in the sample are the perspectives of 48 chambers and 70 local authorities of European islands on the importance of transport on an island's economy.

Following this evidence, the paper brings in the discussion the assessment of coastal transport users as regards the most vital elements for the evaluation of such a system. In particular, it develops and applies a methodological framework that enables the identification and measurement of a number of elements that are critical for assessing the perceived (by the islanders) performance of a coastal shipping system. An extended literature review and brainstorming sessions, leads to conclusions on the eight most critical factors for such assessment. A direct evaluation of the coastal transport system by the general public in the case study research conducted in one European island, that is a Greek one, follows. The results unveil the perceived satisfaction of islanders based on specific attributes of the currently provided coastal shipping services.

The proposed framework can be used for the development of a permanent monitoring scheme that provides a continuous evaluation of the coastal services, as well as to propose measures for increasing the users-islanders satisfaction. At the same-time, the findings provide a useful insight regarding the importance of transportation for the islands the case study shows the shortcomings of the coastal transport system in question.

Keywords

Coastal shipping, Islands attractiveness, Coastal system evaluation


<COASTAL SHIPPING AND ISLAND ATTRACTIVENESS: PERSPECTIVES FROM

EUROPE>

1. Introduction

Transport and especially coastal transport is a well-known factor affecting the attractiveness of an island. It is commonly stated that coastal shipping systems are vital for the social cohesion of insular countries. These are the sea bridges enabling the transport of people and goods between the islands and between the island and the mainland. When any given island is not attractive for the establishment of competitive economic activities and/or keeping population, its socioeconomic base shrinks along with its overall development viability. Therefore it will diverge from peripheral (potentially supranational – i.e., set at EU level) and national goals for achieving sustainable development, economic, social and territorial cohesion. Then, the attractiveness of an island is directly affected by insularity components (like its small size, remoteness and isolation, rich but fragile natural and cultural environment). As a results its accessibility, the presence and quality of public and private services, and agglomeration economies are negatively affected, whereas the feeling of safety and abundance of environment and cultural heritage have an opposite relation

Yet these logical claims remain ones that enjoy limited empirical justification. Within this framework, the paper begins with the presentation of the results of a field research (ESPON, 2009) conducted in nine European islands located in five different countries (Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta) under a recently completed relevant research project that establishes the impact of transports on the attractiveness of insular areas as places to live and to develop economic activities.

Having empirically established the importance of costal shipping systems as crucial parameters for insular areas, the study focuses on the shape and performance of a coastal transport system, and the ways to measure this performance. The latter is related to three elements:

(a) The regulatory framework (public policies);

(b) Business strategies (the structures of the supply side of the market); and

(c) Passengers‟ (users) attitudes, perceptions and usage of the offered service (the structures of the demand side of the market).

Yet, most frequently decision-makers evaluate this performance and then decide on the organisational structures of coastal shipping neglecting the „passenger perspectives‟ dimension, that is the perception of the users of coastal services and their overall satisfaction by the organisation of the system.

Thus, developing a relevant system and use it to access these views as regards the organisation, structures and performance of coastal services is of both theoretical and practical importance and can be institutionalised and used by both the state in the formation of the (de)regulatory environment in which coastal shipping companies operate (i.e. developing quality and quantity standards, enforcement of competition, etc) and the shipping companies in the formation of operational strategies (i.e. efficient planning, itinerary planning, prices etc).

To facilitate the development of such assessment tools, this study proceeds with a more detailed analysis of a case study conducted in a major European coastal shipping market, the Greek one, and discusses am evaluation by islanders of the different types of


services (conventional ferries or else) offered to them. The evaluation takes place based on eight most significant parameters that influence islanders‟ perception about the quality of coastal transport, as selected in the early phase of the present research. When duplicated this study can provide a permanent evaluation system of coastal shipping services.

The paper starts (Section 2) with a presentation of the empirical results of a research study on islands attractiveness. Section 3 provides a brief description of the coastal market conditions that prevailed in the Greek case study area during the field research period. This provides insights facilitating the development of a permanent assessment tool of the performance of a coastal system connecting several islands (especially in a country with a scattered and uneven island complex showing high seasonality and imbalanced traffic like the Greek Archipelago), with the results establishing, inter alia, the importance of evaluating coastal shipping systems. Attention then turns to the methodological framework of the conducted empirical studies (Section 4). Section 5 presents the application of the methodological framework, the elaboration of the primary data, and the outcome of the research for the evaluation of the coastal system. The final section provides the conclusions and proposes paths for future relevant research.

2. Transport: A vital parameter for the attractiveness of islands

This section briefly presents the outcomes of a recent research project (ESPON, 2009), in which the authors of the present study participated as members of the research team. The project aimed at identifying the critical parameters for an island's attractiveness as a place to live and as a place to develop economic activities. For estimating attractiveness, a number of parameters - including the factors related to the so-called Lisbon and Gothenburg EU strategies for economic competitiveness – were defined and formed the basis for research. After the development of an initial long list, the project researchers organised brainstorming sessions with "insularity" experts, and concluded on the parameters that were to be considered in the field research. The aforementioned methodology resulted in the identification of 22 and 24 parameters that are vital for the attractiveness as places for residence and economic activities respectively.

Based on these, a classification of the importance of different attractiveness parameters by insular decision makers (local authorities and Chamber of Commerce, established on the islands) was undertaken with the use of a questionnaire. As regards the questionnaire focusing on the attractiveness of European islands for developing economic activities, the respondents were asked to evaluate every factor in a Likert-type scale of 1-5 (with 1 being a very important factor for calibrating the islands attractiveness for economic activities and 5 being an insignificant factor). For the questionnaire concerning islands attractiveness as a place of residence, local authorities alone evaluate the 22 factors in a scale of 1-5 (with 1 signifying a very important factor for determining the islands attractiveness for living and 5 signifying an insignificant factor).

In that study all the European islands were under consideration except of the islands of outermost regions. There are 362 European islands with population of more than 50 inhabitants plus 228 more with population less than 50 inhabitants. The data necessary for the analysis were in some cases lacking or were not comparable; due to the fact that the European islands correspond to different administrative territorial entities (from Member states to Local Administrative Units). So, the analysis is based on information from: (a) 31 Island regions that are European statistical units (Member States, NUTS II or NUTS III); and (b) nine case-study islands, for which data were acquired through the use of local research and the assistance of local stakeholders.


The European islands included in that study are very diverse in terms of the size of their population and the “importance” of this population within their national entities. A quite clear geographical distribution is evident. On the one hand, islands in north Europe are rather small, mainly close to the coast, and their population is a small part of the total national population (less than 1% except for Estonia). On the other hand, in the Mediterranean, more diverse cases are encountered: there are two island-states (Cyprus and Malta), very big island-regions such as Sicilia, Sardegna, Kriti, Mallorca and Corse, as well as archipelagos and coastal islands. The ratio of these islands‟ population to the correspondent national total varies from 100% for the islands states to less than 2% for France. Greece and Italy are the non islands-states where islands have an important weight with 12% of their population living on islands.

In total, 48 chambers and 70 local authorities answered the questionnaire regarding islands attractiveness as places for developing economic and as places for residence respectively. The data gathered have been processed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v.17.0) software and the MS Excel.

2.1 Unveiling the importance of transport for insular areas

The results of the field research highlighted the importance of transport as an island's attractiveness parameter. The parameters evaluated according to their importance as:

* High priority parameters: Importance level till 3.5.These are the factors that have direct influence in a decision concerning the place of residence.

* Average priority parameters: importance level 3.51-4.00. Concerns the next level of prioritization and include factors that are conceived as important.

* Low priority parameters: importance level 4.01-4.85. Refers to factors that affect indirectly the attractiveness of an island or in a complementary way.

* Insignificant parameters (non-important factors). Refers to importance level 4.86-5.00. Concerns factors that have minor or no importance.

Table 1 presents the importance of island attractiveness parameters as a place to live based on the results of the field research. Those parameters nearest to 1 denote the highest importance while those closer to 5 are the ones that are conceived as less important and have little influence on someone‟s decision to live on an island. Table 2 presents the hierarchy (based on their importance) of the island attractiveness parameters a place to develop economic activities.

Table 1: Hierarchy of parameters influencing island's attractiveness as a place to live

High priority parameters (1.00 - 3.50)

Quality of health care system

Trip frequency

Job opportunities

Medial priority parameters (3.51-4.00)

Regularity of water supply

Quality of life

Quality of education services

Low priority parameters (4.01-4.85)

Cost of travel


Regularity of energy supply

Cost of living

Quality of nature

Quality of transport

Career opportunities

Cost of land

Effectiveness of solid waste collection

Distinct cultural identity

Insignificant-complementary parameters (4.86-5.00)

Opportunities to attend cultural events

Quality of public transport system

Network of trust and social capital

Quality of building environment

Connection to the waste water system

Training opportunities

Participation in non governance collective activities

Source: ESPON, (2009)

Table 2: Hierarchy of parameters influencing island's attractiveness as a place to develop economic activities

High priority parameters (1.00 - 3.50)

Trip frequency

Economic incentives

Medial priority parameters (3.51-4.00)

Regularity of water supply

Development vision of local authorities

Regularity of energy supply

Cost of travel

Low priority parameters (4.01-4.85)

Effectiveness of public administration

Labour costs

Land and construction cost

Quality of transport

Supply of trained/ qualified human capital

Competence of local authorities in solving problems

Quality of local public transport

Broadband connection

Possibility to support innovation

Degree of stakeholder involvement in decision making

Support by other business

Insignificant-complementary parameters (4.86-5.00)

Business support agencies

Security


Effectiveness of solid waste collection

Connection to the waste water system

Cooperation with other business

Threat of natural hazards

Threat of technological hazards

Source: ESPON, (2009)

Accessibility is the second most important parameter for the attractiveness of an island as a place for living. Accessibility is the state of connectivity (Baradaran and Ramjerdi, 2001), whereas the regularity of scheduled trips concludes to uninterrupted connection among islands and mainland. Such conditions ensure equal conditions for both kinds of residents (living on mainland and on islands). The frequency of itineraries is in an inverse relation with the islands isolation.

Accessibility was proved to be the most important factor for attracting business on an island. The consequent establishment strong connection among local markets and their suppliers justifies this. In most cases, islands are highly dependent on mainland suppliers. The regularity of serving a specific itinerary raises the level of accessibility of the served island(s) to mainland and preserves its constant alimentation. It also enhances the presence of equal market conditions among islands and mainland inhabitants, since no regular-scheduled itineraries could (under specific conditions) create imbalances to local markets and raise the cost of products. Furthermore, the “travel cost” parameter influences business decisions. This includes not only the travel cost implied for the transportation/commuting of residents and entrepreneurs but also the impact of transport cost on products and supplies/raw materials. The quality of services might account as complementary to the number of scheduled trips. Respondents to the questionnaire believe that the existence of a regular connection matters more than the quality of the services offered. In a nutshell, the findings reveal that three out of the top ten parameters, regarding island attractiveness for developing economic activities, concern the transport sector.

3. Users’ perspectives on coastal transport

Although transport includes many transport modes and systems, for islands, the main transport mode is coastal shipping mainly due to its ability to transfer not only passengers but also goods. Coastal shipping contributes to the development of insular countries and is vital for their economic and social cohesion and integration with broader reasons.

Yet, the formation and operation of an efficient and effective coastal system serving its users needs is, in most cases, a difficult task for any insular country. This difficulty increases, in the case of countries consisting of numerous islands that are dispersed in a large geographical area (i.e. Greece). The commonly present seasonality in the particular markets add further to such difficulties.

Market actors and decision makers need to identify and endorse policy solutions that enable the sufficient provision of transport services without jeopardising the islanders‟ transportation needs or social cohesion. The situation becomes remarkably complex and problematic whenever a shipping line is needed to operate in a route all year round without being profitable due to the lack of sufficient number of users (either because of the absence of scale of demand or due to high seasonality). When this is combined with the quest for equal transport opportunities for every citizen (i.e. irrespective of whether he lives on the continent or on an island), the need for state intervention emerges. Commonly, in those


markets the operating shipping companies are subsidised so as to remain in the market and provide services that are accessible and affordable for the users (public service obligation).

Users and local communities are among the principal agents in any attempt to develop integrated monitoring and evaluation schemes of the system that will support decision-making. In total, four types of players are active in this coastal shipping system:

* The state, that is usually responsible for setting up and supervising the (de)regulatory framework that ensures accessibility to/from the islands and economic and social cohesion.

* Coastal transport providers that aim for an increase of their market share and profit maximisation (within the given framework)

* Local communities that favour the presence of services of a minimum quantity, price and quality level that enable the achievement and retaining of economic development and cohesion with both the mainland and the rest of the island region in the long run.

* The users of the services, who are interested in frequent round services of a certain quality and price and uninterrupted transportation all year round along with a minimum level of satisfaction from the use of ferries services.

When the state sets the conditions and shipping companies demonstrate the commercial interest to enter the market, a key role emerges for local communities and the users of the services in shaping or supporting the sustainability of the coastal system. Being the direct beneficiaries from the provision of transport services they can set the standards, in terms of quantity price and quality of the shipping services offered. That way they provide a valuable input for the development and operation of an efficient and qualitative coastal system. The regularity is not alone a sufficient condition for the satisfaction of the coastal shipping users. Additional quality features influence decisively users satisfaction. Thus, researchers started to examine the impact of quality in the overall planning and operation of a coastal system (cf. Lekakou, 2007; Rigas, 2009; Mathisen and Solvoll, 2010; Lagoudis et al, 2011). Therefore, studying and identifying ways to integrate users' perspectives on the planning of the system is advancing the optimal decisions as regards its desirable attributes.

The latter brings the maritime world in line with contemporary developments in the broader economy. Therein enterprises and organisations seeking survival in an extremely competitive environment give substantial emphasis on users‟ satisfaction, and the „effectiveness‟ component of their performance as new fields of winning competitive advantage (for applications in the maritime world: Brooks and Pallis, 2008; Vitsounis, 2011). Measuring these elements contributes in the control, the coordination and the proper allocation of resources, as well as the continuous understanding of market conditions (Bitici et al., 2002). The main outcome of such process is that decision-making is more manageable and allows the development and application of the right strategies. Evaluating users perceptions can provide a picture of how the company or the system operates comparing with the stated goals.

3.1 The Greek coastal shipping system

Greece is a special case for those examining the coastal transport market, because of size and the (de)regulatory conditions that have prevailed over last ten years. It is the biggest market of this kind in Europe, as it has about 200 residential islands spread over in more 300.000 sq. km. (the Aegean Archipelago and the Ionian Sea) with almost 1,323 million residents. The facilitation of the transport needs of those people via the development and operation of a coastal system is a difficult task, given the seasonality of the demand for coastal transport services (see Karayannis et al, 2000; Lagoudis et al. 2006).


Prior to 2001 an interventionist state was the decisive factor in shaping the Greek coastal system. Through the Ministry of Mercantile Marine (MMM) the state was deploying a policy having as its central element the vessel, rather than the service, or the island communities and/or any other users. The MMM was responsible for the allocation of the itinerary licences, manning of vessels, entry requirements, the determination of the prices in the economy class, which is the most frequently used by the passengers etc. As a result, competition between the companies was limited, minimising the potential of the modernisation of the fleet, and the improvement of the provided services (Lekakou, 2007). All these created inefficiencies (for a review: Giannopoulos & Aifandopoulou-Klimis, 2004), further enhanced by strict restrictions of licensing implied by the relevant law ruling cabotage services. The situation was amended following the implementation of the EU Regulation 3577/1992 demanding liberalization of cabotage services. This regulation entered into force in Greece in 2001 (Law 2932/2001), creating a more liberalised market for the shipping companies. As the first years after the results were rather insignificant, the MMM kept the leading role in the market with intervene practices (such as compulsory network, minimum manning requirements etc.). Despite these, the overall situation in the market has to a certain extent improved mainly via the modernization of the coastal fleet and the entry of new companies.

In both periods, the pre- and post-cabotage abolishment, users and local communities had no role in designing and evaluating the coastal system. This is confirmed by the several research studies that embarked to unveil the quality of the provided services via the study of users or local communities' perspectives. Whereas in the immediate pre-cabotage liberalisation period the National Bank of Greece (1998) concluded on the need to focus on quality, in the post-cabotage era, Masvoulas (2005), Chlomoudis et al. (2007) and Lagoudis et al (2011) unveiled the lack of quality assessment in coastal transport. The lack of knowledge about users preferences was accompanied by a limited users access to the decision-making. The commonly observed absence of any organisation representing or speaking on behalf of passengers (thus, millions of passengers acting as separate units), means that any oversight by the state was based on fragmented sources of knowledge resulting in considerable asymmetry of information. Thus, the focus was more on pricing and frequency issues and there was neither any evaluation of the provided services nor access to the necessary information in order to proceed to such evaluation if so desired.

Despite its importance for the economy, the coastal shipping system serving the Greek islands remains remarkably unstable (see: Lagoudis et al, 2006). This instability is increasingly seen as a major weakness with social consequences and initiatives that aim to reserve the current situation dominate the policy agenda. The evaluation of the coastal services by the passengers can add to the on-going debate as they can form the basis of related Service Level Agreements (SLA - standards of provided coastal services) and Performance Based Contracts (PBA - the base for assigning any essential subsidies to coastal shipping companies in order to facilitate an itinerary having the nature of a "public service") applied in the entire system. The “key” in such cases (see for example the Norwegian case: Mathisen and Solvoll, 2010) is the active participation of the local communities.

The positive evaluation of the services by the users can be correlated with the reimbursement of the shipping companies for the services they provide. These are cases of comparatively remote islands that fail to provide the necessary demand levels to be of commercial interest to private operators and would rarely be served at a sufficient level in cases of full liberalization. Acknowledging the necessity to protect island transport as of lifeline importance the EU Regulation 3577/92 provides member states the option to impose to specific island cabotage services a Public Service Obligations (PSO) status. Typically, this secures fares and frequencies on the basis of cost benefit analysis, historical entitlements,


or competitive tendering procedures but they do not guarantee a minimum of socially acceptable level of transport provision, since they are not implemented universally or consistently (Eurisles, 2003; Chlomoudis et al., 2007). A prerequisite for providing such „public service obligations‟ - beyond the establishment of minimum frequencies, ports of call, affordable fares, and the obligation to provide continuity of service - is to clearly define the standards of the services provided. Users evaluations contribute towards this end. Given the considerable amount of state aids (approximately 90 million Euros per annum), the national administration and the local authorities need systematic information about the users‟ evaluation.

In short, whereas the efficiency of the coastal system is the outcome of practices, strategic decisions, resources allocation and operations implemented by the market stakeholders in a certain period, the evaluations of the system in place by its users and local communities is a decisive factor for the sustainability of the system.

4. Measuring coastal shipping users' satisfaction: Methodological

framework

To proceed to the empirical research of a case-study, the study team employed a methodological framework consisting of three steps. The first one was a literature review, enabling to collect information about the elements that have been previously used in scholarly research and in practice to evaluate transport systems. Brainstorming sessions with group of experts with long experience in coastal shipping was the second step of the research, and aimed at selecting those elements that can be used for evaluating users satisfaction when adapted to the peculiar characteristics of the Greek coastal transport system. The third and final step was a field research with the use of a structured questionnaire applied on the selected case of a Greek island at the Aegean Sea. Figure 1 portrays the methodological framework of the conducted research.

4.1 Literature review

The literature review concluded to 39 elements that can be used for the evaluation of a coastal system/itinerary from the users point of view. Research on how customers perceive public transport concludes on the presence of a number of factors that include reliability, frequency, travel time and fare level (Hensher et al. 2003; Grigoroudis and Siskos, 2004; Tyrinopoulos and Aifadopoulou 2008), comfort and cleanliness (Eboli and Mazzulla 2007, Swanson et al. 1997), network coverage/distance to stop (Eriksson et al. 2009, Tyrinopoulos and Antoniou 2008), and safety issues (Smith and Clarke 2000, Fellesson and Friman 2008). Friman and Fellesson (2009) underscore the importance of clear and simple transport information.

Studying the establishment of a monitoring framework for assessing quality in Greek railway transport, Nathanail (2008) identified 22 quantitative and qualitative indicators and in addition to safety, cleanness, comfort and passenger information included service elements such as speed, frequency and personnel. A study of leisure passengers‟ travel to Greek islands concluded that the most important factor influencing the choice between air and boat transport is travel time (Rigas, 2009). Other factors identified by Rigas include, for example, safety, fare level, and comfort. For air transport, the quality of in-flight services including the quality of food and drink is important for the satisfaction of the passengers.

4.2 Stage I: Brainstorming with experts

Some of the above elements are not applicable or important for the Greek coastal shipping. Aiming to conclude on which are the ones that need to be included in an


evaluation exercise of the system, brainstorming sessions between the members of the research team and representatives from local authorities took place in Piraeus. The researchers concluded on eight critical elements that determine the users satisfaction from using coastal transport services (see Table 3).

Table 3: Factors affecting users satisfaction

1. Reliability 5. Frequency of itineraries

2. Ticket price 6. Trip duration

3. Vehicle fare 7. Crew attitude

4. Comfort 8. Days and time of itineraries

Source:Authors; conducted as part of ILA. 2009

4.3 Stage II: Data Collection

Based on the eight selected factors, a questionnaire has been developed and a case study evaluation of the system applied in a selected local community. The questionnaire included only six questions (in order to minimize the required time for filling it up). It also included questions on demographic data (i.e. income, age, gender), and questions on the number of responders trips during the previous year, in order to allow an analysis that identifies differentiations between particular population groups.

Respondents evaluated the levels of their satisfaction based on experiences from the use of the existing coastal shipping services provision and were given the choice to evaluate each factor having in mind the different types of existing ferry types (the conventional Ro-PAX, the fast Ro-PAX and the ferry) that served the public service line at the time that the field research was undertaken. Moreover, they stated the overall satisfaction from the coastal services. The evaluation took place with the use of a ten-point Likert scale.

The survey took place at the island of Chios (NE Aegean region). Chios is a destination where seasonality is less of an issue comparing to other Greek islands. In contrast to the island‟s size and population however this cannot be characterized as a top-frequency destination in the Greek coastal system given the smaller number of itineraries that take place comparing with other top island destinations like Central Cyclades, i.e. Mykonos or Paros (see XRTC, 2010); a common „coastal shipping paradox‟ given the presence of highly seasonal tourism in some itineraries.

Focusing on a local basis alone allows narrowing the target group and achieving a more representative population sample comparing to broader populations. We therefore selected the Municipality of Mastichochoria at the Southern part of the island the biggest one in terms of land area and the third in terms of population (4.750 inhabitants). All the villages of the municipality are well connected with the capital of the island where the main port of Chios is located.

During the field research period the island of Chios had 11 itineraries per week to and from Piraeus and the island of Lesvos and one weekly itinerary (public service) that connected Chios with other islands in the North Aegean and Thessaloniki. The field research conducted from November 2009 till March 2010 and the questionnaires distributed through the Municipality services and more specifically via the office that deals with the citizens‟ affairs.

5. Research results

In total 289 citizens responded to the questionnaire (6.25% of the entire population). The data elaborated with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). As


regards the demographic characteristics of the respondents, 52,3% was female. Regarding age distribution, the vast majority of the respondents were below 40 years old (72,9%). One third of the respondents‟ family income was more than 1.700 € per month (well above the national average), 45,9% belonged to the range of low to medium income categories while the rest belonged to the “medium to high” income category. More than half (52,3%) of the respondents had used coastal ferries more than once but less than six times the year before. 33,45% had completed 6-10 trips over the same period, and a further 6,76% of the respondents had travelled more than 15 trips. The maximum number of trip per year was 36.

All the respondents had used both the conventional and the fast conventional ferry at least once in the last year period, while 232 used also the public service itinerary, a condition that facilitated the collection of valid results.

Table 4 shows the results of the evaluation for the conventional ferry. The passengers are most satisfied from the reliability of the service (mean=7,32). The high value of standard deviation however shows a noticeable variance but the negative skewness means that the low valued evaluations were relatively few. The second highest scoring feature is the frequency of itineraries (mean=6,57). Interestingly the standard deviation from the mean evaluation of this feature is remarkable high (>3), indicating that different parts of the population maintain different perceptions and expectations from the system. While for some islanders the frequency is far more than acceptable, for others it is particularly problematic. The lowest evaluation score was observed in the case of the trip duration (3,93) followed by vehicle fare (4,25) and comfort (5,08). The score of the trip duration was something rather expected, as conventional ferries are aged ships with old technology engines that affect the ships‟ service speed. Comfort is an issue for conventional ferries as those deployed in the specific itinerary are aged, thus not providing the spacious and comfortable areas of a new-building ferry.

Table 4: Evaluation of factors affecting users' satisfaction (conventional ferry)

Factor Mean Std. Deviation Skewness Kurtosis

Reliability 7,32 2,539 -0,798 -0,331

Frequency of itineraries 6,57 3,014 -0,574 -1,048

Crew attitude 6,31 2,623 -0,728 -0,242

Ticket (passenger) price 6,14 1,854 -0,553 0,386

Date and time of itineraries 6,08 3,007 -0,493 -1,215

Comfort 5,08 2,032 -0,196 -0,848

Vehicle fare 4,25 1,886 -0,123 -0,684

Trip duration 3,93 1,869 0,234 -0,707

*Scale 1-10; n=289; year: 2009

Source: Authors

The results of the evaluation are rather different in the case of the fast conventional ferry (Table 5), a ship that maintains the majority of the naval design characteristics of a conventional ferry yet is much faster. Respondents were in general more satisfied with the use of fast conventional ferry. Here the reliability of the service has a mean evaluation of 8,67, with a notable yet lower than in the previous case standard deviation, comfort (7,78) and crew attitude (7,61) score also remarkably high means. The attribute of the respondents can be explained by the fact that at the time of the study the fast conventional vessel deployed was only 4 years old, thus the fatigue of the vessels engines was small and the loss in cruising speed was negligible enabling the ferry to be accurate in the travel time. The same issue (age of the ferry) also explains the passengers‟ satisfaction from the comfort while crew attitude is a factor relying more on each company‟s relative policy.


Nonetheless, the lowest scoring factors were the vehicle fare, (mean sore 4,38) and the ticket price (5,61). The price for transporting a car was almost the same with the price of the conventional vessel showing that this an important issue that must be further examined by the ferry companies or the authorities. Conversely, the passengers‟ ticket price was more expensive than the conventional ferry as a shorter time trip was on offer.

Table 5: Evaluation of factors affecting users' satisfaction (fast conventional ferry)


Reliability 8,67 1,38 -2,015 6,638

Comfort 7,78 2,243 -1,139 0,388

Crew attitude 7,61 2,185 -0,852 0,345

Frequency of itineraries 6,02 2,6 -0,668 -0,848

Trip duration 5,99 2,304 -0,709 -0,134

Date and time of itineraries 5,67 2,531 -0,557 -0,894

Ticket price 5,61 1,777 0,195 -0,109

Vehicle fare 4,38 2,336 0,111 -1,062

*Scale 1-10; n=289; year: 2009

Source: Authors

The last type of service under evaluation was the one connecting the islands of Northeast Aegean with the port of Thessaloniki and served by a conventional ferry similar to those deployed in the Piraeus-Chios itinerary. The reason for examining separately this case is due to the fact that the state subsided the particularly itinerary and, as expected it is of interest to identify whether the provision of subsidised services is associated with satisfactory levels of service provision or not. Table 6 provides the results of this evaluation.

The highest evaluation score was given to the reliability of the service (mean value of 7,2) followed by the ticket price (6,91). The users‟ evaluation of the ticket price is the highest observed for this particular factor among the three ferries serving Chios island and its lower level justifies it since it is imposed by the State. The lowest evaluation score belongs to date and time of itineraries (mean=4,42) and trip duration (n=4,88). While the former seems to be an issue for the ferry company and policy-makers to look into, the value for the trip time can be attributed to the old age of the ferry (aged ferries are frequently deployed in such „low commercial interest” subsidised routes). The latter gives substance to claims that lower revenues due to the low occupancy (or load) factor for an itinerary lead sometimes to lower vessels speed - in order to save fuel costs - and affecting the satisfaction of its users.

Table 6: Evaluation of factors affecting users' satisfaction ('itinerary of public interest')


Reliability 7,20 2,116 -0,683 0,029

Ticket price 6,91 1,736 -0,681 0,575

Vehicle fare 5,13 2,289 -0,472 -0,605

Comfort 6,32 2,332 -0,537 -0,318

Frequency of itineraries 5,11 2,731 0,093 -1,086

Trip duration 4,88 2,572 -0,269 -1,107

Crew attitude 6,76 2,521 -0,807 -0,076

Date and time of itineraries 4,42 2,75 0,138 -1,219

*Scale 1-10; n=289; year: 2009

Source:Authors


To sum up the outcomes of the above analysis, Table 7 compares the values that the eight factors scored in the cases of all three types of ships deployed in itineraries serving the island of Chios (in brackets the ranking). The last row shows the overall mean evaluation for each type of coastal shipping service. Comparatively speaking, the respondents and users of the coastal transport services extract more satisfaction from the fast conventional ferry rather than the cheaper conventional ferry that serves the same itinerary (i.e. Piraeus-Chios-Piraeus). The finding that the perceived value is much lower than the maximum one shows that there are tremendous potentials for improving the provided coastal services and the existed coastal transport system.

Table 7: Comparing the users satisfaction for each type of ferry

Factor Conventional Fast conventional Deployed in itinerary of

public interest’

Reliability 7,32 (1) 8,67 (1) 7,2 (1)

Ticket price 6,14 (4) 5,61 (7) 6,91 (2)

Vehicle freight 4,25 (7) 4,38 (8) 5,13 (5)

Comfort 5,08 (6) 7,78 (2) 6,32 (4)

Frequency of itineraries 6,57 (2) 6,02 (4) 5,11 (6)

Trip duration 3,93 (8) 5,99 (5) 4,88 (7)

Crew attitude 6,31 (3) 7,61 (3) 6,76 (3)

Date and time of itineraries 6,08 (5) 5,67 (6) 4,42 (8)

Average overall perceived value

5,71 6,47 5,84

*Scale 1-10; n=289; year: 2009

Source:Authors

Beyond the above, the research team asked users about their overall satisfaction from the coastal shipping system in a verbal way, the respondents asked to express their total satisfaction from the coastal system. Figure 5 portrays their answers to the five point verbal scale (very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, neutral, satisfied and very satisfied). The answers are mostly on the dissatisfied side of the spectrum (43% dissatisfied or very dissatisfied) whereas 31% gave responds at the satisfied side. What is important though is the fact that the preceded analysis revealed a number of specific issues (i.e day and time of itineraries, ticket price, vehicle fare) that need to be evaluated in order to be able to react to the challenges that the coastal shipping system faces; rather than the general overview of users‟ level of satisfaction.

Figure 1: Overall evaluation of the coastal system (n=289)

Source:Authors

0.40%

30.60%26.10%

35.60%

7.40%

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied


6. Concluding

This paper presented the importance of transport as a critical parameter for the attractiveness of islands as a place to live and to develop economic activities. Via the discussion of the empirical results of a relevant research program, the paper unveils the parameters influencing island attractiveness in various European islands. Transport related factors stand among the most important ones, establishing the necessity to develop efficient transport systems in order to sustain social cohesion between the citizens of the mainland and the islands. Regarding island transport systems, the most important one is coastal shipping as it allows apart from the transportation of passengers and the transportation of goods enabling the development of economic activities in insular areas.

The paper considers coastal shipping a vital component of insular transport systems and as such an evaluation of coastal shipping services by its users is the bottom line for being efficient. The case-study of an island served by three different types of vessels and which, despite its size and population, is not integrated in the coastal transport system in a way similar to other more attractive and touristic Greek islands, has revealed some interesting findings. They go beyond the apparent low levels of satisfaction of citizens from the overall coastal shipping system in Greece.

First of all, significant drawbacks are „localised‟ on the types of vessels/services that are deployed to/from the same itinerary. The levels of satisfaction vary to a considerable extent per factor analysed, as well as per type of service. Second, the standard deviation in most evaluations was statistically significant, suggesting that different parts of the population maintain different views about the coastal shipping services offered to them.

The research findings suggest that an integrated approach that takes into account the views of all the constituent parts of the coastal transport system is really worth to be developed. apart from any state intervention (via the development of the regulatory framework, subsidies and the monitoring of the coastal market), private sector entrepreneurship (through the provision of the transport means i.e. the vessels and the exploitation of the markets), and the presence of an appropriate port system (see: Vaggelas and Pallis, 2010), planning and operating a transport system requires a continuous evaluation of the system in order to identify and address drawbacks.

This is particularly true in those cases (like Greece) that liberalisation of coastal services provision is a comparatively recent policy (less than 10 years in the particular case). Greece is a unique case of extensive coastlines and a large number of dispersed inhabited islands. Coastal transport is a complicated and at the same time significant market for the economic development and social cohesion for this, and for any, insular country. The evaluation by the passenger-user who sustains an ongoing contact and experience regarding the provided services would support efficient and effective related decision making processes.

Besides, the current global and, not least Greek economic environment might worse the coastal market conditions. Increased fuel prices might lead to increases in ferry tickets (as fuel costs is the biggest percentage of a ferry‟s operating cost), whereas economic recession reduces demand for shipping services. Adding the significant reduction in the coastal fleet size due to redeployment of ferries to other European or elsewhere markets (where the profit margins and utilization are higher), the withdrawal of ferry companies from the market due to bankruptcy, or phasing out in order to invest in other sectors, one conclude that the near future is not so bright for the coastal market and the islanders. As the market conditions are expected to get worst, satisfying its users, via systematic evaluation implemented at a national level would moderate the consequences to the passengers.


Further research on the parameters resulting in the variation of evaluations by different groups of users would be helpful. A useful research path is also the one towards the development of an integrated evaluation system for coastal transport with the aim being not only to evaluate the users satisfaction based on specific factors (i.e. those included in the preceded exercise) but also on the relative importance that each factor has on the overall satisfaction. This would enable the development of more focused policy and strategic decisions on those factors that are crucial for the citizens using coastal shipping services.

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Coastal transport as a determinant of islands attractiveness: The European case and an evaluation...

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