International ecotourism and economic development in Central America and the Caribbean |
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Authors: | Ulrich Gunter M. Graziano Ceddia Bernhard Tröster |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Tourism and Service Management, MODUL University Vienna, Vienna, Austriaulrich.gunter@modul.ac.at;3. Department of Public Governance and Sustainable Development, MODUL University Vienna, Vienna, Austria;4. Austrian Foundation for Development Research (?FSE), Vienna, Austria |
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Abstract: | Using annual data for the period 1995–2012 for seven Central American and Caribbean countries, six different open-economy growth models that allow for international (eco-) tourism are estimated using panel-data techniques. Two main results of the investigation are that international tourist arrivals per capita have a highly significant impact on real GDP per capita, and also that five different sustainability indicators interacted with international tourism have a positive impact on economic development. Furthermore, quantile regression shows that lower and medium income deciles of the population in particular benefit from international (eco-) tourism. The results are complemented by very similar findings for a set of 12 Central American and Caribbean countries using only two sustainability indicators, thus corroborating the validity of the specification. In addition, control variables are also generally significant and they feature the algebraic signs expected from economic theory. |
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Keywords: | International ecotourism sustainability indicators economic development Central America and the Caribbean panel-data analysis quantile regression |
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