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THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL AND REGIONAL FOOD IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAIN REGIONTHE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL AND REGIONAL FOOD IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAIN REGION
Views:306For a given region, competitiveness and sustainability play a vital role, as they are critical determinants of residents' quality of life and economic situation. The intensive implementation of rural development also offers opportunities for economic growth. Traditional and regional food products obviously give opportunities for the development of rural areas. Also, their production is significant for the local and Hungarian economies and society. Increasing the production of these food products and expanding and increasing their market outlets can contribute to maintaining the population in certain areas of the region and, among other things, protecting and preserving the tangible and intangible heritage of rural areas. Urban areas are also of particular importance for traditional and regional food: local events, such as themed festivals, and catering operators can also help to promote food products through a conscious, well-thought-out sales and marketing strategy.
My research aims to characterize the economic position of traditional and regional food and products among local consumers in the Northern Great Plains region. During the survey, 1.349 people completed the questionnaire, and all of them gave valid responses. I focused on local specificities, gauging the opinions of residents in the region in relation to traditional food consumption in order to assess their willingness to pay more for traditional and regional food.
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Labour market attributes of disabled people in Hungary
119-122Views:477Nowadays employment is an evergreen topic in Europe. The North Great Plain Region of Hungary is a typical rural area in Hungary, the unemployment rate is higher in this region as the national average, that’s why it is important, to give the possibility of job for the people living in rural areas. This paper focuses on the relationship between the disabled and the labour market in the North Great Plain Region of Hungary. On the basis of the 8/1983 Hungarian Law many kinds of supplies are provided by the State for people living with disabilities. It is very difficult to provide jobs for these people after their rehabilitation. Statistical figures show that the highest ratio of ‘people living with disabilities’ can be found in the North Great Plain Region of Hungary (30 per cent of the total number of ‘people living with disabilities’). The research focuses on special rehabilitation firms (they are specialised to employ disabled employers) and their employees. Two questionnaires for the above mentioned firms and their employees were created in order to gather information on their activities as well as relationship between the firms and its employees. Altogether 400 employees filled in the questionnaires. The current study shows the results of this survey. It can be stated that this paper shows the relationship between the employment and the types of enterprises, and disabled workers’ qualification level, the need for further education. According to the latest trends we analyse the attitude to the rehabilitation of people living with disabilities and how they will be able to work again not only in ‘rehabilitation firms’. After summarizing all claims of participants we can make an impression in this area and demonstrate the problems for the labour market generally.
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THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL LIVESTOCK FARMING IN SPAIN AND ITS IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS THROUGH FOCUS GROUPS WITH SHEPHERDS
Views:356Traditional extensive livestock farming has emerged as a potential sustainable development strategy in Europe, particularly to address rural depopulation and provide multiple positive externalities. Despite new European policies emphasizing its importance, the sector continues to decline. This study employs focus group methodology to examine the underlying causes of this decline from the perspective of shepherds. Two discussion groups were held with farmers from the regions of Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, allowing us to contrast the testimonies of the practitioners with the existing literature. Our methodological approach emphasizes the value of focus groups in capturing complex socioeconomic dynamics within traditional livestock communities.
The findings reveal multiple interconnected challenges: low profitability derived from legal requirements and concentration of demand; increasingly complex access to pastures due to local and state regulations; significant barriers to entry, including economic requirements and bureaucracy; difficulties in work-life balance; bureaucratic obstacles to positive externalities; conflictive relations with the tourism sector; weak associationism; and limited technology adoption. This study contributes to the methodological literature by demonstrating how focus groups can effectively reveal hidden dynamics in declining traditional sectors.
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Women and microcredit in rural agrarian households of Uganda: Match or mismatch between lender and borrower?
77-88Views:639The alignment of microfinance programs with the context and expectations of the recipients is critical for ensuring clients’ satisfaction and desired program outcomes. This study sought to investigate the extent to which the objectives and design of the BRAC microfinance program match the expectations, context and characteristics of female borrowers in a rural agrarian setting in Uganda. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to obtain socio-demographic, personality and microenterprise (ME) characteristics of existing borrowers, incoming borrowers and non-borrowers and to obtain information about the microcredit program. We found that BRAC uses a modified Grameen group-lending model to provide small, high-interest rate production loans and follows a rigorous loan processing and recovery procedure. BRAC clients are mainly poor subsistence farmers who derive income from diverse farming and non-farm activities. The major objective to borrow is to meet lump-sum monetary needs usually for school fees and for investment in informal small non-farm businesses. Many borrowers use diverse sources of funds to meet repayment obligations. Defaulting on loans is quite low. The stress caused by weekly loan repayment and resolution of lump-sum cash needs were identified as reasons for women to stop borrowing. The limited loan amounts, the diversions of loans to non-production activities, the stages of the businesses and the weekly recovery program without a grace period may limit the contribution of these loans to ME expansion and increase in income.
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The future role of agriculture in multifunctional rural development
163-171Views:265This paper is focused on analysis and evaluation of the future role of agriculture in multifunctional rural development in Ukraine and also reviewing of the significant basic factors which have influence on it.
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Improving audit functions of supreme audit institutions to promote sustainable development
63-69Views:415In this paper, we demonstrate and analyze the substance of the added value effect of a Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), focusing on sustainable development issues.We intend to answer such questions as: how could a SAI respond to global and local challenges and how it could help government to implement commitments towards sustainability. Finally, we trace a possible way to improve external audit functions both on the state level and at the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), by using some ideas from network theory.
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Methodological questions of a survey of civil organizations
95-98Views:313Today, the non-profit sector, and especially the role of civil organizations, has become significant in society. In Hungary there has been a large development in the past 20 years, in the non-profit sector, as the number of such organizations has quadrupled. The number of classic civil organizations (foundations and associations) makes up more than 80% of the non-profit sector. The social attendance, economic significance and affect often raise the issue of the true intensity of the sphere and also the question of why there are such vast differences between the conditions of function, human resources and how successful they are. For years now, with management related examination, we have been searching for the answers to the above questions, within the confines of the functional aspect research program of the Institute of Management and Organization in University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, Faculty of Applied Economics and Rural Development. Above all, we made an attempt to find general, management- related results and answers, with the use of probability sampling, a low number of samples and surveying.
In the selection process of organizations to include in our research, we relied on the data base of the Court of Hajdú-Bihar County and with K-aspect systematic sampling, and we also questioned more than 140 managers from different organizations. With this research, we acquired a diverse collection of information, which now we intend to summarize within this article. With this article, we aim to find out how realistic a picture the database of the Court gives regarding the civil activity of the county. Even the sampling was not trouble free, since the entire database is not accessible.
The survey also revealed some problems that confirmed the statement of the Central Statistic Office (KSH), i.e. that some organizations either do not function at all or function in name only. -
The future role of agriculture in multifunctional rural development
81-89Views:283This paper is focused on analysis and evaluation of the future role of agriculture in multifunctional rural development in Ukraine and also reviewing of the significant basic factors which have influence on it.
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Examining some fields within human resources management
49-52Views:377Human resources management is one of the management functions, dealing with people as the essential resource of the organization. This function aims at the most efficient usage of employees in order to realize both organizational and individual goals. Nowadays high significance is attributed to human resources management, since the human factor is the resource that determines the success of an organization. The results of a company are in proportion with the knowledge and talent of the people on its payroll. Human talent and knowledge can be utilized to the greatest extent in case management is able to motivate employees to meet not only the necessary requirements but also to achieve the highest possible results. Human resources management consists of several fields of activities, among which the following are the most important: analysis, planning and assessment of the scope of activities, human resources planning, workforce supply, performance assessment, motivation, developing human resources, labour relations, labour safety, HEM information system. Our studies cover a few fields within human resources management. Our research has been carried out at organizations in Hajdú-Bihar County. The study is based on questionnaires, which have been processed by computers and evaluated using statistical methods.
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Consumption habits of “Free range chicken” in Hungary
69-73Views:411Poultry is highly ranked in theWorld meat production and consumption (it accounted for 32% in 2007), and, in the past 20 years it was growing with an annual rate of 3–6%, higher than in case of any other meat-types. This tendency is also valid for Hungary: poultry has the largest share (29.8 kg/person/year, 47%) in the domestic meat consumption since 2000, which is among the EU top (KSH, 2007). As the result of the animal health and nutrition scandals, the EU animal welfare and quality requirements and the advancements in health consciousness the Master-Good group launched the production, processing and trade of free-range poultry under the brand “Free-range chicken”. The new products had good consumer responses, because at present 1.5% of the processed chicken in Hungary (25 tons/week) is under this brand. As it regards the future of this product, we can expect the decrease of the current 1.5 times higher production price over broiler chicken, due to the increasing energy, labour and other cost items, thus the increase of the domestic consumption by 25–30% per annum can be foreseen. Besides the growth in domestic demand, increasing foreign consumer demand can also be expected because of the space requirement of the production. Summarising the above mentioned: „Free range chicken” can be one of the most successful products of the Hungarian poultry industry. In order to realise the prognosis mentioned above, it is inevitable to learn the consumer attitudes towards the brand. A primary market research programme supported by the Master Good group has been launched to study the main features of the domestic chicken meat consumption – including the „Free-range chicken” as highlighted brand. The primary aim of the research was the complete assessment and evaluation of the Hungarian chicken consumption habits and the identification of the possible take-off points. The research undertaken resulted basic information concerning the internal structure of the Hungarian poultry consumption (including that of the „Free-range chicken”), the potential consumer groups and their requirements, provided information on the consumers’knowledge of the products and identified the elements of the consumers’ judgements. This will serve as basis for a marketing communication programme to increase the domestic „Free-range chicken” consumption.
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The effects of the global economic crisis on the markets for fossil and renewable fuels
131-136Views:357The 2008/2009 world economic crisis had significant impact on oil and fuel markets. This crisis has been developed from the meltdown of the American mortgage and financial market and spread throughout the global economy. As each country reacted differently to the crisis, the changes in the fuel market have also shown significant geographic variation. In our present research, the changes of the US, German and Hungarian fuel markets were analysed, looking for answers to the reasons behind different crisis reactions. We examined the tendency of fuel consumption, the changes of gasoline and diesel price elasticity and the possible effects of the crisis on the regulatory system.
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The social value of science shops: A cost-benefit analysis
23-30Views:421We describe and apply a method to determine the net social benefits of science shops. University departments operating as science shops coordinate research projects for individuals or civil society organizations (CSO) lacking the financial means to turn to professional consultancy bureaus. Three cases are analyzed; the science shops atWageningen, Brussels and Eindhoven. After investigation, it appears that under the normal assumptions for the application of CBA, the science shops concerned show positive net social benefits.
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Recruiting recent graduates to work at agricultural enterprises: Siberian region case study
27-30Views:369The authors present the results of the analysis of the employment of graduates of agricultural specialties in the Siberian Federal District of the Russian Federation. In the Siberian Federal District, more than 20 universities are engaged in the training of specialists in agriculture. The universities pay special attention to the employment of their graduates and often have their own programs of graduates’ employment.
The article is devoted to discussing the reasons why the graduates consider the work in the rural area to be unattractive (low standards of living conditions compared with town, lack of quality education for children and possibilities for professional development, etc.) The necessity of realization of the state strategy intended to support graduates of agricultural specialties is grounded, including assigning the status of civil servants to social workers in rural areas and attracting successful entrepreneurs to the village and creating conditions for the development of the entrepreneurial
environment.JEL Code: J21
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Research and education in agrobusiness in Mosonmagyaróvár – the 200-year history
129-136Views:457In 2018, the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences of Széchenyi István University celebrated the bicentenary of its predecessor’s foundation. Agrobusiness courses played an important role in the university’s agricultural engineering program throughout this major time period. The aim of this study is to examine how the titles, the content, and the significance of the courses changed during the institution’s important periods. Institutional history publications and the academic textbooks of great professors provided the basis of this research. Business administration, accounting, and agricultural estimation studies courses were already dominant in the first curricula. Later, courses concerning business and agricultural economics gained more ground and were accompanied by other fields of study: agricultural statistics, agricultural politics, agricultural history, and agricultural economics. During this 200-year period, the education of economics and other social science courses was done within the departments of agricultural economics and marketing, work organization and factory management, and social science and business operations, with the contribution of internationally renowned professors: Pál Sporzon, Richárd Suschka, Árpád Hensch, Károly Világhy. The Hungarian Royal Economics Academy (1874-1942) can be considered as the first prime of the agricultural economics education. From the 1900s onwards, the courses became more specialized, their numbers continuously grew, the disciplines expanded, and the number of departments increased. The second prime is the first decade of the 2000s, when besides the traditional agricultural programs, the institution started teaching economic agricultural engineers in its undivided 5-year training. They were the most popular agricultural engineers in the labor market due to their well-balanced knowledge in agriculture and economics, as well as their excellent leadership skills.
Having abandoned the economic agricultural engineering program, the institution currently educates, besides other agricultural majors, rural development agricultural engineers, whose skills the labor market does not know very well. The proportion of business related courses show a significant decline in the curriculum of traditional agricultural programs as well.
JEL code: N30
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Adjustment of poland’s agriculture and food sector to challenges of agricultural policy of the European Union
39-44Views:394Paper is aimed in assessment of first period of Poland’s membership in EU and covering agriculture and rural areas with the support under the Common Agricultural Policy in the context of future challenges faced by the agricultural policy.Analysis shows that accession to EU became a strong impulse for growth of the Polish food economy, however the main challenge for the Common Agricultural Policy in future, from Poland’s perspective, will be strengthening the multifunctional agriculture, i.e. territorial cohesion and positive effects of agricultural activity on natural environment.
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Economics of GM crop cultivation
7-19Views:524Asynchronous approval of new GM crops across international jurisdictions is of growing concern due to its potential impact on global trade. Different countries have different authorisation procedures and, even if regulatory dossiers are submitted at the same time, approval is not given simultaneously (in some cases, delays can even amount to years). For instance, by mid-2009 over 40 transgenic events were approved or close to approval elsewhere but not yet approved – or not even submitted – in the EU.Yet, like some other jurisdictions,the EU also operates a zero-tolerance policy to even the smallest traces of nationally unapproved GM crops (so-called low-level presence). The resultant rejection of agricultural imports has already caused high economic losses and threatens to disrupt global agri-food supply chains. The risk that feed supplies could be affected by a low-level presence of non-EU approved GM material could be resolved if the EU allowed a tolerance for this, rather than operating a strict zero tolerance as now. The Commission has undertaken to come forward with a nonlegislative technical solution to address the difficulties created by a strict zero tolerance policy. To what extent this would be helpful will depend on the nature of the proposed solution.
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Issues in the economic development and utilization of EU funds in a disadvantaged sub-region of the Southern Great Plain region
43-46Views:277The development period between 2007 and 2013 had a historical significance for Hungary as the funds that were provided by the European Union and were supplemented by the domestic and public sectors naturally offered great possibilities for the country’s sub-statistical regions and regions to inspire their development and innovation. In order to use these funds efficiently it is essential to incorporate the developments into the area’s capabilities, to harmonize them and to increase the role of the sub-statistical regions and regions. This study ranks the sub-regions of the Southern Great Plain Region in terms of their economic characteristics and identifies the most disadvantageous ones. Using as an example a specific sub-region it determines the local effects of EU payments with the application of different statistical methods.
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Extent and characteristic of diversification among Hungarian agricultural holdings
37-44Views:302Through the connection to rural resources agriculture has an impact on the three functions of countryside: ecology, society and economy. Resources of economy and production environment are continuously changing thus farmers have to adapt to these changing circumstances. One of the adaptation methods is the diversification of activities to promote effective capacity utilization and additional profit. However there is no standard definition of diversification from the point of agricultural economics aspect both traditional approaches and the influence of European Union should also be considered to define it. Diversification and alternative income opportunities could be subsistence possibilities for several farmers. This could be defined not only at private holdings’ but at enterprises’ level. According to a traditional approach Hungarian statistical databases collect on-farm and off-farm agricultural activities depending on the connection to resources of a farm business. Analysing this database an overall picture could be defined considering the position and characteristic of diversified farmers and the popularity of each activity among agricultural producers. Based on a study, published in 2011 (Hamza, 2011) this paper also involves the latest statistical data (2010, 2013). Analysing dataset of period 2000-2013 this paper gives an overall overview about national and regional position and characteristics of diversified holdings and activities.
JEL code: Q19
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Key aspects of investment analysis
53-56Views:1229This paper reviewed principally accepted methods applied to investment analysis. To describe every aspect of investment analysis fully would require far more space than available here, so we highlight only of few of its aspects. This study collects several well-known bibliographies, contrasts them with each other and provides explanations for having done so. There are many questions about which authors and companies agree, including about how to apply certain methods, but on others there is disagreement. Four dynamic methods (Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Profitability Index, and Discounted Payback Period) are demonstrated from the viewpoint of application. Moreover, this study clarifies several sensitive questions, such as handling income taxes, inflation and uncertainty. Other examined issues are only mentioned at the end of this paper, and we will publish on these more thoroughly at a later date.
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Future role of agriculture in multifunctional development of rural areas
135-143Views:310In the paper the changes in agriculture in terms of falling share of agriculture in gross domestic product and decrease in the share of persons employed in agriculture in total employment in Poland and selected countries are discussed.The main driver of these changes is a faster pace of development of non-agricultural activities and continually deteriorating relations between the costs of production factors and prices of agricultural products. The rate of growth in labor costs and prices of the means of production for agriculture is much faster than the rate of increase in prices of agricultural products. This causes the decline in profitability of agricultural production which in creases the size of farms. The pace is dependent on the level of economic development of the country. The study also identified trends in the structure of farms, functions and systems of agriculture in the generational perspective.The polarization of the farms will deepen.A strong group of commodity farms and a group of so-called self – subsistence social farms will emerge. Agriculture in Poland will have a dual nature. In addition to the production function and social services agriculture will expand the scope of service functions for the environment and society.
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Work organization and economic examination of breadwinning of rurality
37-39Views:279Agriculture has been and probably will be a significant branch in the south part of the Great Plain in the future as well. Besides the mass products and in many cases instead of them when forming the agricultural structure, this region has to pay more attention to the branches that were important in the past. Hungarian experts who are famous in foreign countries as well deal with these branches and they provide excellent products. The rules referring to these products are more liberal in the market places of the European Union and their development is not controlled by strict quota systems. In the south part of the Great Hungarian Plain a lot of unique products of excellent quality are produced. Here in this essay we would like to find the answer to the question how the two significant products of the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain can provide the families with the income that they can live on.We aim at the economical examination of the cucumber grown in Méhkerék and asparagus of Homok. To do this we will apply the so called Standard Gross Margin. The agriculture of the states of the European Union is measured with the help of this method. It can also help us in the future to decide whether the different farms belonging to families are economically viable in Hungary.
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The economic and social role of private farms in Hungarian agriculture
33-41Views:360The situation and importance of private farms in Hungary have significantly changed and are still changing due to the political and economic regime change of 1989-90 and subsequent events. The aim of this study is to provide – unlike the practice of the last two decades – an impartial review of the social and economic role of Hungarian private farms. To demonstrate the changes occurring in private farms, we rely on the data of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO-KSH)such as the General Structure Surveys, the Farm Structure Surveys, and tables from the online stADAT database.
From the point of view of methodology, time series analyses (2000–2010) were performed in the framework of this secondary research. Our hypothesis that private farms in Hungary deserve much more attention than previously, from the perspective of the output of Hungarian agriculture, food consumption and, last but not least, employment (the environmental factor was not examined this time) has been clearly confirmed. The role and significance of this group have also been exceedingly important since EU accession, particularly in the fields of horticulture and animal husbandry, and the strengthening of these positions is indisputably a national economic interest. -
Comparative yield risk calculations of sour cherry and pear varieties regarding risk aversion
111-116Views:299Fruit production in the world is increasing continuously. Though in the past few years China and some South-American countries have extended their fruit producing areas, Europe remains to be one of the greatest fruit producers in the world. In the middle of Europe Hungary has to face several challenges as competing for market. Since yield risk has an important role in Hungarian fruit production we investigate the yield risk of two of the most important sour cherry varieties (’Újfehértói fürtös’ and ’Oblacsinszka’) grown in Újfehértó (1984-2005), moreover, two of the most important pear varieties (’Bosc Beurre’ and ’Williams’) grown in Bánfa and Zalasárszeg (1984-2009). In the examined periods we analyse yield risk with different comparative methods such as E,V-efficiency, first and second degree as well as generalized stochastic dominance methods. We conclude that the production of sour cherry variety ’Oblacsinszka’ in Újfehértó is more preferable compared to the other sour cherry varieties and pear variety ’Bosc Beurre’ in Bánfa is more advantageous than the other pear varieties and sites.
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The competitiveness of rural areas in the Republic of Tatarstan
89-96Views:324This paper analyses the main factors influencing the regional competitiveness of rural areas in the Tatarstan Republic. Firstly, 19 variables related to the socio-economic situation in the Tatarstan Republic were analysed, these having been taken from the Statistics Committee of the Tatarstan Republic. Principal component analysis (PCA) was then used to determine the weights of 10 indicators that have an effect on the level of regional competitiveness. Factor weights are used as weights in the summation of the standardised scores of variables that have an impact on competitiveness. The major factors influencing the level of regional competitiveness are the level of economically active population, investment in housing and the level of education. The following results were obtained: one of the 44 regions is very highly competitive and two are highly competitive; two of 44 regions have a medium level of competitiveness and 39 regions have a low level of competitiveness.
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On tests for long memory process behavior of international tourism market: Thailand and India
95-99Views:416In our research we examine the behaviour of both Thailand’s and India’s international tourism market by using long-memory analysis. The international tourism market of Thailand combined with seven groups such as East Asia, Europe, The Americas, South Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa. Similarly, the international tourism market of India combined with nine countries: USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka. Moreover, three statistical tests for long-memory process such as R/S test, Modified R/S test and GPH-test are employed to study these markets. The empirical findings in general provide more support for long memory process in international tourism market of Thailand and evidence for short-term dependence in international tourism market of India. Therefore, the policy makers of each country should understand the behaviour of long memory process in international tourism market before launching any stimulating campaign to this industry.
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