Seasonal concentration of the hotel demand in Costa del Sol: A decomposition by nationalities

Costa del Sol is a mature Mediterranean destination in the South of Spain with a degree of seasonality that has shown little variation during the last 20 years. In this paper, we apply the decomposition of the Gini index of seasonal concentration by nationalities. The main outcome of this decomposition is the estimation of relative contributions to the overall seasonal concentration and marginal effects by nationalities. These measures can be of great help in the design of counter-seasonal policies. Our results suggest that planners interested in reducing seasonality may concentrate their efforts in consolidating markets with negative marginal effect over the index of concentration, like the British and Nordic ones. In addition, marketing targets may be focused primarily in the winter season for the markets with positive relative marginal effect.