Europe will remain the most visited touristic destination in the world with a total of 717 million tourists in 2020. The foreseen increase rate is 3.1% per year. This is one point lower than the world average, leading to a loss of market quota of Europe from almost 60% in 1995 to 46% in 2020....

Retail in large store-chains extended in well-developed countries. 465 millions inhabitants express their supply on their markets; between 2000 and 2005 sales values were increasing; the increase-sources were the promotional prices, as well as the European buyers' availability to respond to the...

The protected natural areas, by their aesthetic, recreational, educational and scientific valences, represent extremely attractive tourist destinations, some of them unique at international level. Their touristic exploitation has different forms from a country to another, from a type of...

Social exclusion may manifest through spatial concentration of deprived population in communities located in certain areas. The globalization has reshaped the social and spatial geography of cities which led to major implications for research on social exclusion. Thus, in any practical...

In the next decades, developed countries will experience dramatic changes in their demographic trends. The retirement of the wide baby-boom generations, the increase in life expectancy and the decline in fertility ratios are likely to modify the size and the age-structure of their populations....

Europe is developing its "knowledge society". It passes from an economy based on traditional factors of production (land, labor, capital) to one in which the major components are information and knowledge. It is well known that the socio-economical and technological development has an important...