Volume XVI, Number 2, 2020

ABSTRACT – The intensifying regional competition in the past decades has a serious impact on the work of decision makers, as well as on science. The presence of the concept of regional competitiveness in the documents of the European Union dates back to a considerable period. One needs only think of the development of the union’s regional (cohesion) policy. On the other hand, the revaluation of the topic is shown by the number of related scientific papers, including, of course, the investigation of the causes leading to the process. In my paper, I examine the factors defining and influencing regional competitiveness. The regional framework of the analysis is provided by two major economies of the European Union, Germany and France, and their NUTS2 regions. In the analytical part, using the method of PLS-Path Analysis (PLS, partial least squares), a model explaining competitiveness is developed, which includes the latent variables representing the elements of the examined concept. Analysing the effect mechanisms between these latent variables help explore which capital factors can be considered important or less significant in terms of competitiveness in the studied regions.

ABSTRACT – For the proper development of tourism destinations, the role of tourism policy is becoming more important. Holding this in mind, scientists have concentrated on environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability. The SWOT-AHP study was used in this paper to formulate sustainable tourism growth strategies for newly formed tourism strategies in Mandarmani and Tajpur. The most dangerous factors for the destinations are the breach of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) standard and coastal degradation and depletion of biodiversity. Weaknesses are the second priority factor in the growth of sustainable tourism. The weakest factors for these destinations are the lack of public facilities and the lack of tourism goods. Besides these, the natural beauty of the sea beach is the most reinforcing aspect that, as weekend ecotourism resorts, gives the scope to these destinations. It also has opportunities for more employment choices, as well as local residents, and at the same time contributes to the growth of local infrastructure.

ABSTRACT – Crop diversification is one of the major components of diversification in agriculture. Crop diversification is intended to give a wider choice in the production of a variety of crops in a given area so as to expand production related activities on various crops and also to lessen risk. Crop diversification in India is generally viewed as a shift from traditionally grown less remunerative crops to more remunerative crops. Diversification is the process to take advantage of emerging opportunities created by technology, new markets, changes in policy etc. to meet certain goals, challenges and threats and to reduce risk (Chand and Chauhan, 2002). The study area is located in-between 8º 5′ and 13º 35′ of northern latitude and 76º 15′ and 80º 20′ of eastern longitude with an area of 130,058 km². Tamil Nadu has historically been an agricultural state, while its advances in other fields launched the state into competition with other areas. In this study, statistical techniques are used for deriving the results and cartographic methods are used for mapping the results. Gibbs and Martin’s method (1962) is used to demarcate crop diversification regions. Results clearly show a low diversification index value in the coastal districts, moderate in some districts, and higher values in the central districts of Tamil Nadu.