Abstract

Abstract
The transport sector plays a fundamental role in the European Union economy and its efficiency is fundamental to strengthen the region's environmental and economic performance. Unfortunately, the sector still remains heavily dependent on oil resources and is responsible for a large part of the air pollution. The European Union has been promoting various initiatives towards sustainable transport development by setting targets in the sector such as the ones proposed in the 2011 White Paper on transport. Under this context, this study aims at evaluating the environmental performance of the transport sector in 28 European Union countries, from 2015 to 2018, towards the policy agenda established in the strategic documents. The assessment of the transport environmental performance is made through the aggregation of seven sub-indicators into a composite indicator using a Data Envelopment Analysis technique. A variant of the Benefit of the Doubt model is used to determine the weights to aggregate the sub-indicators. The results obtained indicate that the European Union countries have been improving their transport environmental performance in the last two years of the time span under analysis, i.e., 2017 and 2018. Regarding the inefficient countries, results suggest they should improve the transport sustainability mainly by drastically reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-based propulsion, increasing the share of freight transport using rail and inland waterways and also the share of transport energy from renewable sources.

Abstract

Abstract
The transport sector of the European Union is the only sector of the economy that has been increasing its emissions since 2014. To reduce the use of fossil fuels and achieve the greenhouse gas emissions mitigation target, many countries are focusing on the deployment of electric vehicles. This paper aims at analysing recent literature on the deployment of electric vehicles (EV) and typifying objectives, methods and indicators generally exploited, to better understand the state of the art on this topic. The Web of Science database was used and the results showed that the interest in the topic of electric vehicles has been increasing exponentially since 2010. The main significant indicators and the assessment methodologies were analysed. The indicators identified were aggregated in four main clusters: environmental, economic, social and technical indicators. Although the factors that contribute to EV deployment can vary depending on the regions specific characteristics, most of the research studies pointed out that the main contributors are the high density of recharging points, the existence of government monetary incentives and the lower operational cost of EV.

Abstract
Hospitality is one of the most important sectors in the tourist activity in Portugal. Knowing the characteristics and features of the hotel units operating in Portugal is important for all those who make decisions about investment in this sector. Knowing the reality of brand affiliation of Portuguese hotel establishments is also a matter of great interest for hoteliers in supporting strategic decision-making. Performing the analysis of the universe of hotel establishments in Portugal, their characterization is made concerning their features, facilities and equipment. In addition, the reality of brand affiliation of Portuguese hotel establishments is analyzed and discussed through a logistic regression model. The results allow us to conclude that just over a third of hotel establishments in Portugal are brand affiliated and they are mostly located in the more touristic regions. The results also show that brand affiliated hotel establishments have, on average, a greater number of stars, greater capacity and a greater number of facilities than non-brand affiliated hotel establishments.

Abstract