The work of Jordi Sanjuán, Pau Rausell and Fernando Álvarez has been recognised as the ‘Most Innovative Article (Methodologically) of the Year 2025’.
Econcult receives international recognition for the most methodologically innovative article in Tourism Analysis
The research group Econcult celebrates the international recognition awarded to Jordi Sanjuán, Pau Rausell and Fernando Álvarez, authors of the article “Estimating cultural tourists in Spanish regions through machine learning”, distinguished as the Most Innovative Article (Methodologically) of the Year 2025 by the journal Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
The award was granted by the journal’s editorial team, one of the leading scientific publications in the field of tourism, with an acceptance rate of 13.1% and nearly 500 manuscripts submitted in 2025, highlighting the highly competitive and selective nature of this recognition.
The awarded article stands out for its application of machine learning techniques to estimate the presence of cultural tourists across Spanish regions, offering a novel, replicable methodology grounded in robust empirical evidence. This approach overcomes traditional limitations of tourism statistics and opens new avenues for territorial analysis, cultural planning, and evidence-based public policy design.
According to the editorial board of Tourism Analysis, the award for methodological innovation recognizes research that pushes the boundaries of the field through original methods, high-impact results, and strong theoretical and practical contributions. The selection of the work by Sanjuán, Rausell, and Álvarez reinforces Econcult’s role as a reference point in applied research on cultural economics and tourism.
This recognition adds to other recent milestones of the journal, which in 2025 recorded a significant increase in submissions and a reduction in average review times, consolidating its international standing. In this demanding context, the award highlights Econcult’s capacity to combine academic rigor, methodological innovation, and social relevance. Regarding the input-output tables, the participant is Fernando Álvarez, a member of the project "Strategies based on culture and creativity for the modification of the Valencian model towards innovation," funded by the Regional Ministry of Finance and Economic Model of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Econcult particularly values that this distinction recognizes a line of research aimed at improving knowledge of cultural and tourism flows, with direct implications for sustainability, cultural governance, and territorial development.
Sanjuán, J., Rausell-Köster, P., & Álvarez-Teresa, F. (2025). Estimating cultural tourists in Spanish regions through machine learning. Tourism Analysis, 30(2), 223–237.
