Devaluation and US tourism expenditure in Mexico

Studies that investigate the factors affecting US tourism expenditures in Mexico generally regard relative prices in these countries as sensitive determinants. The findings of inelasticity of expenditures of American tourists with respect to prices in the Mexican interior and border in several studies published in the 1980s are debatable. This study evaluates the impact of recent peso devaluations by adjusting 1970–1982 US tourism expenditures by an index that combines the Consumer Price Index in dollars, the CPI in pesos, and the exchange rate. The results here clearly indicate that US expenditures in the interior and on the border are price sensitive and have a strong positive trend reaction to devaluation in both nominal and real terms. Border expenditures clearly exceed interior expenditures and are more sensitive to exchange rate changes than expenditures in interior Mexico.     

The Impact of Mexico's Currency Devaluations on Revenue from U.S. Tourists

U.S. visitors to Mexico increased by 120% between 1970 and 1987. Mexico's booming travel industry has increased nominal revenues from the U.S. by 375% and expenditures per tourist by 116% during this time period. Adjusting these data by a ratio index gives a more vivid picture of the impact of inflation and the peso devaluations over time. Trends in U.S. tourist expenditures to Mexico are shown to parallel exactly the movements of the ratio index bases on relative prices and exchange rates. Our modified regression analyses indicate that both real U.S. disposable income and the ratio index are excellent independent variables for the purpose of predicting number and expenditures of U.S. tourists to Mexico. Further, U.S. tourism numbers and expenditures are elastic with respect to each of these variables. The inconsistency between these results and past estimate may be the result of multucollinearity or autocorrelation in their data.     

Site and situation strategy in tourism planning: A Mexican case study

Mexico has experienced all the effects, good and ill, of a large and expanding tourist trade. Tourism's negative consequences--economic dependency, crime, cultural erosion--have manifested themselves in tourist ghettos along Mexico's northern border, on the Mexican Riviera, and in the capital. This study is an assesment of contemporary Mexican tourism planning as it relates to these problems, and further as it seeks to make tourism a stimulus to economically depressed areas of the nation. A case study approach is utilized to identify the strategy of site and situation selection for the new programmed resort complex at Cancun on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan peninsula. It is concluded that Cancun embodies, at least for Mexico, a radical departure in tourism development. The resort is situated to attract a large foreign clientele and to create the greatest possible positive economic and social impact on a resident Mexican population that has suffered chronic underdevelopment.     

Evaluation of demand: US tourists to Aruba

This study examines international tourism demand to Aruba from the United States. This is the first empirical attempt to estimate the income, price, and exchange rate elasticities on Aruban tourism. An accurate estimate, understanding, and forecasting of the demand based on appropriate analytical methods is important for both the government and private investors. Tourism demand estimates from either the linear and the double log linear models reveal that the effects of income dominate those of prices and exchange rates. In general, US tourists appeared to be highly sensitive to the income variable and inelastic with respect to price. The exchange rate variable was not significant.     

SURE Estimation of Tourism Demand System Model:

The purpose of this study is to build a tourism demand system model which incorporates inbound, outbound and domestic tourism of the U.S. The study utilizes the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SURE) technique to investigate the international tourist flow between the U.S. and Canada, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, and inland European countries. Relevant marketing and policy implications for income and price elasticities are discussed.     

Tourism in Taos and Patzcuaro: A comparison of two approaches to regional development

This study examines tourism and regional development in terms of the different institutional structures present in the United States and Mexico. Using the methodology of controlled comparison, the analysis shows that, although Taos and Patzcuaro share many social structural characteristics and have similar tourist sectors, the relatively open institutional structure within New Mexico and the United States contrasts sharply with the relatively closed, “elitist” institutional structure operating in Michoacan and Mexico. As a result, the citizenry of Taos has been possible for the people of Patzcuaro. The different roles of the public and private sectors in Taos and Patzcuaro are particularly significant in this respect and illustrate two quite distinctive approaches, from the national to the regional to the local level, to the problems of tourism and regional development.     

The impact of tourism on a dependent island: Gozo,Malta

Tourism for the 22,000 inhabitants of Gozo, Malta's underdeveloped sister island, means just over one hundred foreign residents, several hundred hotel visitors, and an annual stream of several hundred thousand day trippers from Malta. For Gozitans tourism has provided substantial earnings for a few catering and transport entrepreneurs, permanent employment for a few hundreds, and a modest income for some 1,600 women and girls producing handicraft souvenirs at home. However, the tourist connection to Gozo is controlled by Maltese, who obtain a disproportionate share of the industry's earnings. Increasingly Gozitans resent the way Maltese exploit their island, pollute it with picnic rubbish and treat them as backward. They compare their patronizating neighbours to the polite, free spending foreigners by whom they are treated with respect. Foreign appreciation of their rural environment and lifestyle has increased Gozitan self confidence, even as it has exacerbated their traditional resentment of Maltese cultural, social, and economic dominance. On balance, Gozitans from all walks of life regard tourism positively, especially its benefits to their underdeveloped economy.     

Tourism as ethnic preservation: The Cajuns of Louisiana

This paper addresses the impact of tourism on the preservation of ethnic identity with specific reference to the Louisiana Cajuns. Tourism has helped the Cajuns retain a separate identity by reinforcing the differences between Cajuns and outsiders. Cajuns are increasingly relinquishing their traditional culture in favor of standard U.S. values, but they retain a strong sense of identity and ethnic pride. A growing tourist industry was institutionalized at about the same time as the development of ethnic pride, and the two phenomena have profoundly influenced each other. Cajuns have become tourists in their own culture, joining outsiders in seeking and celebrating their brand of “local color” Cajun culture is now enacted on a “tourist stage” for the benefit of locals and their visitors. The tourist stage is an arena for the expression of ethnic differences, and it helps perpetuate an ethnic boundary that might otherwise disappear due to acculturation. Using the Cajuns as a case study, this paper proposes a model for the process of ethnic preservation through tourism.     

Toward a framework for tourism education: Problems and prospects

Jafari, Jafar, J. R. Brent Ritchie, Toward a Framework For Tourism Education: Problems and Prospects. Annals of Tourism Research 1981, VIII(1):13–34. The purpose of this article is to offer a framework for analysis and discussion of tourism education. It first adopts a definition of tourism within which interaction among its components and extraneous aspects are considered. Specifically, it addresses issues related to travelers, tourism goods and services, socio-physical factors, and the host-guest relationship. Second, it discusses some social science disciplines relevant to the study of tourism, with reference to some methods of research and teaching of tourism. Finally, the article moves on to present some other issues pertinent to curriculum development in tourism. Throughout the paper, a number of questions are raised and attempts are made to point out some critical issues in tourism education.     

Foreign travel and tourism prices and demand

Sunday, Alexander A., “Foreign Travel and Tourism Prices and Demand,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. V, No. 2, April/June 1978, pp. 268–273. Using regression analysis and panel data this study estimates the parameter effect of prices on American demand for foreign travel and tourism. Findings suggest that higher air fares generate fewer tourists but greater expenditure per tourist visit.     

Domestic tourism demand of urban and rural residents in China: Does relative income matter?

The aim of this research is to investigate the domestic tourism demand of urban and rural residents in China. Based on the data from the National Household Tourism Survey, we specify Chinese domestic tourism demand as a function of absolute income, relative income, domestic tourism price, and substitute price. As a major contribution of this study, relative income is measured using the distance between individual income and average income over a city/province. Based on the estimation results from multilevel models, this paper highlights the effect of relative income on domestic tourism demand in some sub-regions of China. Furthermore, regional differences between residents in different sub-regions and different patterns of determinants between urban and rural residents are identified and discussed.     

Examining the link between meetings,incentive, exhibitions,and conventions (MICE) and tourism demand using generalized methods of moments (GMM): the case of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of meetings, incentive, exhibitions, and conventions (MICE) on tourism demand in Singapore over a period of 10 years (2003–2012). Past studies have shown that MICE matters a great deal to host destinations but researchers have rarely conducted any empirical research to verify the significance of this sector to tourism demand. Our study intends to fill the gap by using Difference and System generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimators for dynamic panel models. Tourism demand is measured by tourist arrivals from the top 30 origins, and the influence of real income of the tourist generating country and real exchange rate is also examined. The GMM results show a significant positive relationship between tourism demand and MICE (with international meetings as proxies). Additionally, the findings reveal that tourism demand growth is significantly positive (negative) with respect to changes in income (relative prices). The coefficient of lagged tourist arrivals indicates a high level of habit persistence and revisiting.     

A holiday celebration in a binational context: Easter experiences at the US–Mexico border

As part of a larger research project examining cross-border culture in a recreational and tourism context, this brief research note describes how intangible heritage melds into Easter celebrations and provides some preliminary findings of interviews with borderlanders and their experiences with Easter memories. The Paso del Norte region of the US–Mexico border is composed of the Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) and El Paso and Las Cruces (USA) conurbation. Mexican culture with strong roots at north of the border, while American culture heavily influences the cities south of the line. There are five international border ports of entry, which have facilitated the growth of cross-border tourism and the flow of culture and ideas on both sides of the boundary. In this setting, the commemoration of ‘Bunny Day’, or Easter, has become an important borderland cultural phenomenon celebrated on both sides of the border at Chamizal Park in Ciudad Juárez and Chamizal National Memorial in neighboring El Paso, and has become a mark of local borderlands culture. This is unique to the Paso del Norte borderland, which is home to a highly conservative, Catholic society. It is a manifestation of blended American and Mexican religious holiday traditions that represent the US–Mexico border community     

The price competitive position of Mediterranean countries in tourism: Evidence from the Thomson brochure

Tourism in the Mediterranean region is highly dependent on the few, large, mass market tour operators situated in the North European tourist originating countries. Price competition is intense both between the tour operators and between the Mediterranean countries themselves. This paper uses the hotel package prices listed in the Thomson summer and winter brochures to develop relative price indexes of each Mediterranean country with respect to the Mediterranean average. Indexes are developed in the 3 star, 4 star, 5 star, 7 nights and 14 nights, half-board holiday packages. The prices in the Thomson brochure can be regarded as a unified, internally consistent, set of price data, compiled by the largest UK tour operator and offered to UK tourists desiring a Thomson summer holiday. The change through time of the competitive relative price ranking of hotels, regions and countries listed in the Thomson brochure, may be regarded as an important competitive indicator by industry operators and national policy makers concerned about tourism development.     

Implications of a long-term increase in oil prices for tourism

It is expected that global oil prices will increase in the future. Assessing the overall economic impacts on tourism is difficult, as oil price rises will be concomitant with global changes in other commodity prices, exchange rates, and incomes. A general equilibrium perspective is therefore presented in this paper. The model couples a global general equilibrium model with a purpose-built CGE model of New Zealand, which focuses on describing tourism supply and demand in some detail. The results indicate a decrease in real gross national disposable income of 1.7% for a doubling of oil price and a 9% reduction in the real value of tourism exports. As a result of segment-specific price increases and differing income and exchange rate effects and elasticities, the reduction in demand for tourism in New Zealand by 18 segments differs substantially. The greatest reduction in demand is observed for tourists from the United Kingdom.     

Values as determinants of motivation: Tourism and other career choices

Neuman, Yoram, Abraham Pizam and Arie Reichel, Values as Determinants of Motivation: Tourism and Other Career Choices. Annals of Tourism Research 1980, VII (3): 428–442. This study examined the predictive validity of work values in explaining motivational patterns of three groups of career preparation differing in their occupational specificity: Tourism/Hospitality, Management, and Liberal Arts. It was found that the higher the occupational specificity of a career preparation the higher is the predictive validity of work values in explaining work motivations. As predicted, the best relationships between values and motivation was found in the maximally specified occupation, namely: tourism/hospitality students, followed by management students with the liberal arts students — the most flexible occupational group — having the lowest relationship between values and motivation. The implications of the findings for employee selection and motivation prediction in the tourism/hospitality industry are discussed.     

Never on Sunday? Mexican tourists at the beach

This paper examines contemporary middle class Mexican recreational tourism through a micro-ethnographic study of tourist behavior at a small beach resort in the state of Chiapas. Majority behavior represents the inversion of aspects of normal behavior, particularly in the deregulation of meal-times, night and day activities, and the rules for play. It is hypothesized that the particular, and comparatively excessive, behaviors described may stem from both the historically antecendant Spanish and Indian cultures, with their baroque tendencies, and from the recent liberation of the new middle classes from the “Victorian-like” rules of daily behavior. Behavior at the beach resorts resembles earlier types of vacation in the U.S.A. and this suggests there may be an evolution of tourist behaviors characteristic of the historical situation of the national home cultures of the tourists.     

The effects of scale in economic development: Tourism in Bali

Eric E. Rodenburg, The Effects of Scale in Economic Development: Tourism in Bali. Annals of Tourism Research 1980, VII(2):177–196. Planners promote tourism to meet the objectives of economic development. Different scales of enterprise, however, meet the objectives of planners in different ways. Data from Bali, Indonesia, illustrate the differential social and economic effects of three scales of tourism enterprise; large industrial, small industrial and craft tourism. A comparison of these segments of the continuum of tourism enterprises in Bali shows that the objectives of economic planners (increased earnings, foreign exchange, investment, job opportunities, production, entreprenuership, infrastructure, and the minimization of adverse social and cultural effects) are not best met through the promotion of large, industrially scaled enterprises.     

Ethnic tourism,the state,and cultural change in Southeast Asia

International tourism in Southeast Asia increasingly involves a restructuring of the relationship between the state and local cultures. A typology identifies the roles that culture and ethnicity play in Southeast Asian tourism. Tourism involves the state in new relationships with local cultures—as planner of tourist development, as marketer of cultural meanings, as arbiter of cultural practices displayed to tourists, and as an arena for new forms of politics. The state's role is contradictory and complex, as tourism leads to increased state intervention in local cultures and, at the same time, provides cultural groups with new means of pressing claims against the state.     

Development of advanced tourism studies in Holland

Bodewes, Theo, Development of Advanced Tourism Studies in Holland. Annals of Tourism Research 1981, VIII(1):35–51. The entry of tourism studies into the field of advanced education is often a difficult process. Theory and practice sometimes serve conflicting interests. In the Netherlands an option has been taken for a theoretical, multi-disciplinary approach with links to the field of practice. Within this framework, tourism is indissolubly connected with leisure and recreation, leisure being the core of studies. This implies that the universities should educate leisure economists, leisure sociologists, etc., and that advanced professional educational institutions should educate leisure experts. This paper discusses whether the problems and solutions in the Netherlands are recognizable and/or useful abroad, and whether one institution can learn from the experiences of others.