On the tourism-led growth hypothesis in the UAE: a bootstrap approach with leveraged adjustments

The emerging market of the UAE has chosen attracting international tourism as one of the main strategies during the recent decades in order to diversify its economy. The main goal has been to achieve sustainable growth without overreliance on the volatile oil sector. This article investigates the impact of tourism on economic performance in the UAE by using bootstrapped causality tests with leverage adjustments. The results show that the tourism-led growth hypothesis can be supported empirically. Thus, the conducted policy by the UAE government to promote international tourism for achieving economic growth might be considered as a sustainable strategy.