Investigating the tourism and economic growth linkage: a panel causality analysis for the SAARC countries

Tourism receipts and expenditure are considered to be causally related to economic growth. The present study investigates the causal relationship between tourism receipts and tourism expenditure to economic growth for a panel of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries over a 20-year period (1995–2014). The present study used panel Granger causality tests and panel fully modified ordinary least squares to test the presence and magnitude of the causality. Results indicated a bidirectional causal linkage between growth and tourism expenditure only, while tourism receipts were found to influence growth. Tourism expenditure was found to have a negative effect on growth.     

Tourism specialization,economic growth,human development and transition economies: The case of Poland

This study examines the relationship between tourism specialization economic growth, and human development in a transition economy. It proffers a conceptual link between tourism specialization and human development through a division of labor framework. Dynamic comparative advantage, Sen's capability approach, and the translog production function characterize the conceptual relationship. The Limited Information Maximum Likelihood (LIML) estimates this relationship's nature in the case of Poland. Tourism specialization has a short-term effect on economic growth and a negative and indirect link to human development. Economic growth seems the channel that supports human development expansion, indicating short- and long-term significant, positive effects. Human capital reveals a U- shape pattern in its relationship with economic growth and human development. The study's implications are two testable propositions and two policy options suggesting tourism specialization's potential impact on private and public incomes, which are relevant developmental channels in transition economies.     

The relationship between tourism,CO2 emissions and economic growth: a case of Mediterranean countries

This study explores the impact of tourism on economic growth considering CO₂ emissions utilizing panel data techniques for a sample of Mediterranean countries. The cointegration tests reveal that there is a positive long-run equilibrium between tourism, CO₂ emissions and economic growth. This positive long-run relationship may suggest that tourism increases the level of CO₂ emissions and has a statistically significant impact on economic growth in Mediterranean countries. Emirmahmutoglu and Kose (2011. Testing for Granger causality in heterogeneous mixed panels. Economic Modelling, 28(3), 870–876.) test results reveal that the tourism-led growth hypothesis, which suggests that tourism contributes to economic growth, is valid for Egypt, Italy, and Spain. Additionally, there exists a bidirectional relationship between tourism and economic growth both in Morocco and Turkey.     

Tourism expansion, tourism uncertainty and economic growth: New evidence from Taiwan and Korea

This study examines the causal relationship between tourism expansion and economic growth in two Asian countries: Taiwan and South Korea. An EGARCH-M model with uncertainty factors is employed to examine the direction of causality between tourism expansion and economic growth, as well as the impulse impacts of uncertainty on both variables. The results indicate that the tourism-led economic growth hypothesis is supported for Taiwan while a reciprocal causal relationship is found for South Korea. The significant impacts of uncertainty on growth are also identified.     

The determinants of Italian domestic tourism: A panel data analysis

In this study, a GMM panel data estimation is used to investigate the main determinants of Italian domestic tourism demand as measured by regional bilateral tourism flows. The analysis is developed both at aggregate level and for the two traditional macro-areas of the country, namely Centre-North and South. For the whole nation, the importance of traditional economic variables in determining domestic tourism flows is confirmed. However tourist actual choices appear also to be influenced by past experiences and by regional differences in the quality of the wider environment. Additionally it appears that, for Italian tourists, domestic and international destinations behave as substitutable goods. The sub-sample analysis highlights some interesting differences between macro-areas. In particular, southern tourists appear more responsive to income variations, and less sensitive to prices differentials than their northern counterparts. Moreover, the degree of competition between domestic and outbound trips is higher in the South. Finally, southern tourists seem to be more influenced by environmental attributes while northern tourists are more sensitive to cultural activities.     

Industry level analysis of tourism-economic growth in the United States

We investigate the relationship between economic growth and six tourism-related sub-industries (accommodation, air transportation, shopping, food and beverage, other transportation, and recreation and entertainment) in the United States in 1998–2017. Except for the lodging and the food and beverage sectors, no long-run relationship exists between other tourism sub-industries and economic growth. We uncover a unidirectional Granger causality from economic growth to each of the sub-industries. Causality is also found between the tourism industries but predominantly from industries providing local offerings (food, entertainment, shopping) to those delivering cross-destination goods and services. Our results suggest that tourism investment could be successful in the long-run even during periods of economic stagnation. In the short-run, however, tourism sectors could benefit from economic growth and tourism-related investment should take a cue from the general economy. Additionally, tourism-related investment and marketing efforts in the U.S. may wish to focus on the food, shopping, and leisure sectors.     

On the empirical relationship between tourism and economic growth

This paper studies the dynamics of economic growth and tourism evolution for 80 countries during the period 1995–2016. The variables representing economic and tourism growth are growth rates of per capita GDP and international tourist arrivals per inhabitant respectively. Using the concept of economic regime, the paper introduces a notion of distance between the dynamical paths of different countries. Then, a Minimal Spanning Tree and a Hierarchical Tree are constructed to detect groups of countries sharing similar performance. The two main clusters we find can be interpreted as two groups of countries with high and low performance in the tourism sector and are coherent with the business cycle. The evolution of such clusters shows three main stylized facts: certain countries move across clusters; the low performance cluster tends to span, while the high performance one tends to be (more) compact; the distance between the two groups increases in time.     

Tourism and economic development: Which investments produce gains for regions?

Across three decades numerous metropolitan regions have made substantial investments in different tourist amenity packages. These investments were made to either capture a portion of the growing tourism market or establish an image that attracted the human capital needed to advance economic development. This article analyzes the returns for the tourism industry and for economic development from different amenity packages and finds those related to sports and amusements generated the most significant gains for regions.     

Tourism development,energy consumption and Environmental Kuznets Curve: Trivariate analysis in the panel of developed and developing countries

The study investigates the relationship between economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, tourism development, energy demand, domestic investment and health expenditures with an aim to test the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the panel of three diversified World's region including East Asia & Pacific, European Union and High income OECD and Non-OECD countries. The study covers the period of last nine years i.e. 2005–2013. The study used the principal component analysis (PCA) to construct tourism development index which is the amalgamation of number of tourists' arrivals, tourism receipts and international tourism expenditures. The results validate the inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon emissions and per capita income in the region. The results further substantiate the following causal relationships i.e. i) tourism-induced carbon emissions, ii) energy-induced emissions, iii) investment – induced emissions, iv) growth led tourism, v) investment led tourism and vi) health led tourism development in the region.     

Tourism product development and the changing consumer demand: A case study of Kenya

Kenya is an important tourist destination in Africa accounting for over 6% of the total international tourist arrivals to the continent. However, in recent years Kenya's tourism industry has been experiencing problems of poor performance and continuing decline in the number of international tourist arrivals. This study examines the main characteristics of the country's tourism product vis‐a‐vis the changing trends in global tourism market demands. It is argued that the underlying cause of the recent poor performance of the tourism industry relates to the nature of the country's tourism product. Over the years, Kenya has been offering a limited tourism product that is based on beach and wildlife tourism. Also, the marketing of Kenya mainly depends on overseas tour operators who mainly sell inclusive tour packages. Thus, the form of tourism product that is offered by Kenya has not responded to the recent changes and trends in international tourism market demands. Post‐modern tourists, particularly tourists from developed countries, are increasing becoming aware of the negative impacts of mass tourism and are increasingly looking for alternative tourism products that provide a deeper and more meaningful experience. Thus, if Kenya is to rejuvenate its tourism industry there is need for the country to provide a diverse alternative tourism product which is more appealing to the post‐modern tourists.     

A comparison of the moderating effect of tourism reliance on the economic development for islands and other countries

Tourism is usually one of the top industries in most countries, especially islands. However, there is some question as to whether there is a negative potential impact if a country relies too much on tourism as a means of economic development to the detriment of other industries such as manufacturing and agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of tourism reliance on the relationship between tourism development and economic development for regular countries and island economies, including “small island developing states” (SIDS). This study uses quantile regression on panel data from the WDI database from 1995 through 2014 for all of the countries that report tourism and economic data. The findings demonstrate that tourism reliance does have a moderating effect on the relationship between tourism development and economic development for all countries, but mainly at higher levels of economic development.     

The economic importance of meetings and conferences: A satellite account approach

Meetings and conventions (MICE) visitation is often considered an important element of the travel economy, and destinations target such activities to encourage their growth. It has hitherto been difficult to measure the economic significance of such activity at any spatial scale. Latterly, the development and codification of tourism satellite account (TSA) approaches to the economic measurement of tourism offers an opportunity to develop a parallel approach to understanding the MICE economy. This paper presents an estimate of the direct economic impact of MICE activity in the UK in 2011, following TSA approaches. The potential to extend the core Meetings Satellite Account, to estimate indirect economic impact and sub-national economic impacts, is also assessed.     

Tourism development and the tourism area life-cycle model: A case study of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

The conceptual framework of the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) has been frequently examined since it was first proposed by Butler in 1980. However, few studies have applied the concept to national parks and other protected areas. This paper examines the applicability of the model to China's Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. In addition, both external and internal factors affecting the park's tourism development as well as the environmental, social, and economic changes of the area are also discussed. Results indicate that the park has experienced the first four stages as described in Butler's 1980 seminal paper [The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: Implications for management of resources. Canadian Geographer, 24, 5–12]. Currently, the park is in the consolidation stage. Both governments and the private sector are major players as catalysts for the park's tourism development from one stage to the next. While the local or even regional economy has become increasingly dependent on tourism, the park has also been experiencing noticeable transformation and loss of traditional cultures since its inception in 1982. Finally limitations to the current paper are outlined.     

The responsibility of tourism in traffic congestion and hyper-congestion: A case study from Mallorca, Spain

This paper explores the relationship between tourism and traffic congestion and hyper-congestion using the case study of Mallorca (Spain), one of the most important resort destinations in the Mediterranean. After discussing different proxies to capture the associated problems to road traffic congestion, different time series models are estimated including considering the days of the week, holidays and meteorological determinants jointly with a daily indicator of tourist population pressure. Results show how the tourist pressure variable is an important determinant in explaining the different alternative indicators of traffic congestion and hyper-congestion, for different roads. Hence it is possible to classify the roads in terms of usage by tourists in order to anticipate the levels of traffic intensity, especially during peak periods.     

An empirical analysis of the influence of macroeconomic determinants on World tourism demand

This paper considers three econometric models to determine the relationship between macroeconomic variables and tourism demand. Tourism demand is measured by the inbound visitor's population and also by on-the-ground expenditures. The database is an unbalanced panel of 218 countries over the period 1995–2012. There is evidence that an increase in the World's GDP per capita, a depreciation of the national currency, and a decline of relative domestic prices do help boost tourism demand. The World's GDP per capita is more important when explaining arrivals, but relative prices become more important when we use expenditures as the proxy for tourism demand. We cannot reject the hypothesis of a relative prices unitary elasticity of expenditures. Additionally, we have partitioned our data by income level and by Continent. Results are robust in the first partition, but less robust in the second, although the main conclusions still hold. Finally, we draw policy implications from our findings.     

Managing relationships in the Tourism Supply Chain to overcome epidemic outbreaks: The case of COVID-19 and the hospitality industry in Spain

The rapid spatial diffusion of the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak has resulted in the total economic disruption of the Tourism Supply Chain (TSC) causing a significant reduction in revenue and creating liquidity issues for all operators. Firms in TSC are linked to each other in complex patterns, leading one risk to another. The purpose of this article is to understand the role of relationship management between hotel chains and their key TSC agents in order to overcome economic disruptions caused by epidemic outbreaks. Among the main contributions of this article are the identification of governments, tour operators, and competitors as the key relationships to be managed by hospitality firms. In addition, key areas for coordination with these actors are explored. Finally, the objectives of relationship management according to the partner are also addressed.     

Females' perspectives on tourism's impact and their employment in the sector: The case of Petra,Jordan.

This study aims to explore the trend towards gender equality in the tourism sector of the Petra region, Jordan. To do so, a mixed methods design including a questionnaire and in-depth interviews was employed for female residents of rural and urban areas in the region. The results show that women do not have favourable view of tourism's economic impacts and that several barriers exist to their employment in the tourism sector. The findings' implications and future studies are addressed.     

Assessment of natural resources for nature-based tourism: : the case of the Central Coast Region of Western Australia

Resources for development of a nature-based tourism industry were identified and assessed in the Central Coast Region of Western Australia. The assessment framework developed used both qualitative and quantitative techniques to establish levels of attraction, accessibility, presence of infrastructure and the level of environmental degradation. Data were gathered using a checklist approach to quantify characteristics of sites. Resource assessment was completed using matrices with relevant indicators incorporating weighting techniques. Sixty-five potential nature-based tourism resource sites were identified. The attraction diversity in the Region is high, although the resources were associated with poor accessibility, low levels of tourism infrastructure and moderate levels of environmental degradation. Results from this research were presented to government authorities and incorporated into the planning process. This paper highlights some of the difficulties associated with establishing objective resource evaluation techniques for nature-based tourism, as well as key findings from the research.     

Impact of distance on the arrivals,behaviours and attitudes of international tourists in Hong Kong: A longitudinal approach

This study revisits the impact of distance on international tourist behaviours in Hong Kong. This work divides and cross-validates the concept of distance into physical and cultural distance. This work also proposes an alternative cultural distance measure by introducing optimal weight amongst Hofstede's dimensions and then compares the proposed measure with the traditional Kogut and Singh's and Kandogan's measures. By using data from the Visitor Profile Report of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the World Trade Organisation from 2002 to 2017, along with latent growth curve modelling, multivariate regression and panel data analysis, findings confirmed the significant role of physical and cultural distance. In addition, quadratic relationships are detected using cross-validation methods. The effect of physical distance on tourist demands clearly dominates that of cultural distance in the overall market. The problem of spurious correlation and the results of three cultural distance measures are also discussed.     

Decomposition of tourism greenhouse gas emissions: Revealing the dynamics between tourism economic growth,technological efficiency,and carbon emissions

This study proposes an analytical framework for decomposing the national tourism carbon footprint and carbon efficiency to identify the dynamics between economic growth, technological efficiency, and environmental externality. Using the environmentally extended input–output model and decomposition methods, tourism carbon changes are decomposed into the economic factors of total consumption and purchasing patterns, and the production factors of industry input structure and technological improvement. This macro-level approach provides a basis for 1) assessing whether total tourism emissions increase in direct proportion to tourism consumption over time, 2) tracing the underlying determinants and their effects on tourism emissions expansion and eco-efficiency performance, and 3) comparing the carbon performance of the tourism industry against the national average. Based on the example of Taiwan, the results demonstrate that we are a long way from the goal of using the technological efficiencies of production to offset tourism-based carbon emissions.