Container port competitiveness and connectivity: The Canary Islands main ports case Beatriz Tovar a,n , Rubén Hernández b , Héctor Rodríguez-Déniz c a Infrastructure and Transport Research Group (EIT), Department of Applied Economics, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, FCEE D.2.20, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain b Department of Logistics, Innovation Center, Industrial Engineering Department, Mahidol University, 25/25 Phuttamonthon 4 Road, Salaya, NakhonPathom 73170, Thailand c Statistics Division, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden article info Article history: Received 10 April 2014 Received in revised form 27 October 2014 Accepted 2 November 2014 Available online 18 December 2014 Keywords: Container ports Port competitiveness Port connectivity Port accessibility Canary Islands ports Transport networks abstract The Canary Islands' economy is extremely dependent on sea transport. Since accessibility and con- nectivity are major determinants of international transport costs, the analysis of their main ports' con- nectivity is crucial for keeping costs under control. Since different port authorities manage the major ports of the Canary Islands, they could be tempted to compete for transshipment cargoes, instead of working together to facilitate supply chain integration that would increase their competitive standing. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the infrastructure and superstructure endowment of the main Canarian ports and their accessibility, by evaluating site and situation factors, is documented. Secondly, the connectivity of the main Canarian ports is assessed by means of graph theory. This provides im- portant measures that define a port's competitiveness, and its potential to achieve or keep regional or global hub status, and also to follow its evolution. A brief review of papers measuring port connectivity based on graph theory is included to illustrate the current approaches in port network analysis, and to justify our methodological framework. A sub-network of 53 ports directly related with Las Palmas and Tenerife ports has been selected for this purpose. Our findings are mainly related to the connections among the nodes in the sample network, and to the position that the targeted ports hold. Additionally, some policy recommendations, regarding how to improve the connectivity and competitiveness of the Canarian ports, are also enumerated. Previous analysis indicates that, at present, the Las Palmas port is the only regional hub in the Canaries. Both Canarian port authorities should differentiate themselves by specializing in certain valued added services and increasing traffic in these services. This would avoid the danger of a destructive competition be- tween them to attract transit traffic. In summary they should be proactive in maintaining and improving the main Canarian ports' connectivity. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction As interchangers between sea and land transportation modes, ports constitute a central element within any transportation sys- tem, and by extension for the economy as a whole. The sig- nificance of a port is even greater for the economy in island re- gions where practically the totality of goods enter and leave through ports. This is the case for the Canary Islands whose tourism-based economy is highly dependent on the sea transport that satisfies the needs of the population and the millions of tourists visiting the islands each year. Significant levels of con- nectivity contribute to the competitiveness of ports (Lee et al., 2014), and generate network effects that contribute to the econ- omy (Laird et al., 2005). Moreover, and as Martinez and Hoffmann (2007) show, connectivity is one of the main determinants of in- ternational transport costs, so improving port connectivity is crucial for keeping transport costs under control. The Canary Islands form one of Spain's 17 autonomous com- munities, and are one of the outermost regions of the European Union. Located in the Atlantic Ocean and consisting of seven is- lands, they are situated 115 km from the northwest African coast and are at an average distance of 1750 km from Madrid. The Canary Islands main ports, Las Palmas and Tenerife, are located in the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, respectively; together they accounted for more than 88% of the total freight moved to Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol Transport Policy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.11.001 0967-070X/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: btovar@daea.ulpgc.es (B. Tovar), rdobleh@hotmail.com (R. Hernández), hecro459@student.liu.se (H. Rodríguez-Déniz). Transport Policy 38 (2015) 40–51