Immigration and Tourism Demand: Empirical Evidence from Australia
Seetaram, N. (2012). “Immigration and Tourism Demand: Empirical Evidence from Australia” Tourism Management, (in press).
Immigration can potentially influence tourism flows. However, in spite of the vast number of studies on tourism demand... more
Immigration can potentially influence tourism flows. However, in spite of the vast number of studies on tourism demand modelling, the immigration-tourism linkage has not received much attention in the empirical literature. This paper seeks to address this gap. A dynamic demand model is developed and estimated using data from 1980 to 2008 for the 15 main markets of Australia. The explanatory variables included are income, own price, price of a substitute destination, airfare and immigration. The estimation results empirically establish the connection between immigration and inbound tourism. The short-run and long-run immigration elasticities generated are 0.028 and 0.09 respectively. Additionally this paper demonstrates that omission of prices of substitutes affects the value of the own price elasticity of demand. The results have implications for future research and for stakeholders who can improve the efficiency of their planning exercises by taking into account additional information on immigration trends.
Keywords: Immigration, Tourism Demand, Dynamic Panel Data, Price of Substitutes, Australia.
Book Review - The Discovery of Tourism Economics - Larry Dwyer (ed.)
Annals of Tourism Research - Forthcoming
Migration Impacts on Australian Inbound and Outbound VFR and Total Tourism Flows
Dwyer, L., Seetaram, N., Forsyth, P., King, B. (2012). “Migration Impacts on Australian Inbound and Outbound VFR and Total Tourism Flows" Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) International Conference, 6th to 9th of February, Melbourne, Australia.
Keywords : VFR, Tourism Demand, Inbound and Outbound, Australia, Immigration and Tourism.
Book Chapter : Panel Data Analysis
Seetaram, N. and S. Petit (2012). “Panel Data Analysis” in “Research Methods in Tourism” L. Dwyer, A. Gill, N. Seetaram (eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing, UK. Forthcoming
Keywords: Panel Data, Tourism, Panel Data Cointegration Tourism Demand, Economic Growth and Development. Keywords: Panel Data, Tourism, Panel Data Cointegration Tourism Demand, Economic Growth and Development.
Book Chapter : Time Series Analysis
Cang, S. and N. Seetaram (2012). “Time Series Analysis” in “Research Methods in Tourism” L. Dwyer, A. Gill, N. Seetaram (eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing, UK. forthcoming
Keywords : Unit Root, Cointegration, Tourism Forecasting, Time Series Modelling, Neural Network, Artificial... more Keywords : Unit Root, Cointegration, Tourism Forecasting, Time Series Modelling, Neural Network, Artificial Intelligence.
Seetaram, N. (2011). “Competitiveness Index Versus Real Exchange Rate As The Proxy For Price In Models Of International Outbound Tourism” Second Conference of the International Association for Tourism Economics, Bournemouth University, 4th to 7th of July, UK.
Keywords ; Price Elasticity of Demand, Outbound Tourism, Dynamic Panel Data Cointegration, Destination Competitiveness
The review of literature on outbound tourism reveals that the variable, real exchange rate (RER) has failed to act as... more The review of literature on outbound tourism reveals that the variable, real exchange rate (RER) has failed to act as an adequate proxy for prices in tourism demand models estimated using Australian data. RER has been systematically found to be statistically insignificant. It is argued here that in spite of the results obtained, it is not reasonable to conclude that Australian travellers are insensitive to changes in the value of their local currency when deciding on the purchase of international trips. It is suggested that, since Australia is an open economy experiencing export-led growth, rising export leads to rising income level while also influencing the real value of the Australian dollar in terms of the currency of its main trading partners. Since income level and RER are affected by common factors such as changes in monetary policies, the inclusion of both in a model of outbound tourism may attenuate the effect of one. This is possible that in previous models of international departures from Australia the use of measures of the country’s income such as GDP or GDP per capita have in fact reduced the effect of RER causing the price of international trips to sound seemingly unimportant in explaining international travel from Australia. On the other hand, as expected income has been found to be a crucial determinant of international departures. This paper develops a competitiveness index (CI) which is then utilised as a proxy for prices in a dynamic panel data model of Australian outbound tourism. International departures to 47 destinations for the period of 1991 to 2008 are considered. The estimation results show that while RER are insignificant and yield an elasticity of -0.004, CI is significant and generates a price elasticity of -0.913. CI clearly outperforms RER as the price variable in the model.
Hidden Sights: Tourism, Representation, and Lonely Planet Cambodia
Tegelberg, Matthew. 2010. Hidden Sights: Tourism, Representation and Lonely Planet Cambodia. International Journal of... more
Tegelberg, Matthew. 2010. Hidden Sights: Tourism, Representation and Lonely Planet Cambodia. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 13(5): pp. 491-509.
This article examines discourses of tourist location as articulated in the influential and highly-successful travel guide Lonely Planet Cambodia. The aim is to direct attention to discourses and representations in guidebooks and their influential role in emerging tourist markets such as Cambodia by accomplishing two central tasks. First, an investigation of the discursive context within which Cambodia has been framed for more than a century reveals Lonely Planet Cambodia’s tendency to reproduce a problematic colonial discourse. Discourse analysis of examples from the guide demonstrates how this particular narrative continues to perpetuate a history of silencing local perspectives. These observations lead to a second line of argumentation. Despite Lonely Planet’s stated intention to promote a responsible and socially-conscious mode of tourism, this agenda is contradicted by discursive practices that strategically avoid controversial issues. Instead, the guidebook relies on common tourist themes that are primarily concerned with producing an image of Cambodia that appeals to the western traveller.
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Download (.pdf) Gay Tourism in a Sun and Beach Destination
Melián González, A; Moreno Gil, and Araña, J. E. (2011). Tourism Management, 32, 1027-1037.
Gay tourism is seen as an attractive business opportunity for many destinations. However, there is a lack of research... more Gay tourism is seen as an attractive business opportunity for many destinations. However, there is a lack of research at identifying the resources necessary for success in this type of tourism. This work is aimed at filling this gap by using the premises of the resource based view and transfers them to the analysis of territories to identify the valuable resources that are required for a sun and beach destination to attract gay tourists. To this end, this study has focused on a gay tourism sub niche, tourists lodged in gay- exclusive resorts in Gran Canaria. In order to confirm the validity of this approach, the relationship between the satisfaction of gay tourists and the condition of the valuable resources was studied by means of a robust statistical new method, namely Bayesian model averaging. That method permits the inclusion of uncertainty in the theoretical models that determine destination competitiveness, thus reducing many of the problems that arise in the application of the more conventional statistical methods in this type of analysis.
Valuation of Tourism Environmental Attributes in the Canary Islands
León, C.J., González, M. and Araña, J.E. (2005). Tourism. An International Interdisciplinary Journal, 53 (2), 163-173.
The Canary Islands represent a set of mass market tourist destinations evolving in the last decades towards a... more
The Canary Islands represent a set of mass market tourist destinations evolving in the last decades towards a predominant sun and beach tourist product. In this process
environmental resources have played a role in attracting tourism demand, but have also been subject to pressure and transformation. This paper presents results on the valuation
of some environmental assets utilized in the tourism industry of the Canary Islands. It is shown that these assets are valuable for the tourism industry in economic terms, and therefore policy measures undertaken to protect and enhance these values might have contributed to a more sustainable tourist product in the long run.
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Tourist Use and Preservation Benefits from Big Game Sport-Fishing in the Canary Islands
León, CJ., Araña, J.E. and Melián, A. (2003). Tourism Economics, 9(1), 53-65
Deep-sea game fishing is an activity that tourists can enjoy at some holiday destinations. This paper presents results... more Deep-sea game fishing is an activity that tourists can enjoy at some holiday destinations. This paper presents results on the benefits received by international tourists from big-game fishing in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). Both the use and the preservation values emanating from the sport-fishing resource are investigated by following the contingent valuation method. The responses to two dichotomous choice questions are modelled using a bivariate approach which takes account of possible correlation effects. The results show that both use and preservation values can be significantly explained by the practitioners' socio-economic characteristics as well as by the degree of their involvement in the fishing activity. It is also determined that the preservation value for the biomass stock is very relevant when compared with the use value for the activity of big-game fishing.
A Study of Outbound Tourism From Australia
Seetaram N. (2012), "A Study of Outbound Tourism From Australia" Tourism Economics, 18(5). pp xx. (Forthcoming)
In spite of the vast and growing literature on tourism demand, outbound tourism remains fairly under-researched. This... more
In spite of the vast and growing literature on tourism demand, outbound tourism remains fairly under-researched. This paper highlights the usefulness of examining determinants of outbound tourism and develops a comprehensive dynamic demand model for international travel from Australia using panel data cointegration technique. The data used are for 47 destinations from 1991 to 2008. The aim is to compute robust demand elasticities. One of the contributions of this paper is that it demonstrates the role that immigration plays in determining international tourist departures from Australia. The estimated short run and long run immigration elasticities are 0.2 and 0.6 respectively.
Keywords
Outbound Tourism Demand, Australia, Dynamic Panel Data Cointegration, Immigration.
Rewards to education in the tourism sector: one step ahead
Lillo-Bañuls, A. y Casado-Díaz, J.M. (2010) “On the rewards to education in the tourism sector: One step ahead”, Tourism Economics, Vol. 16, nº. 1, 11-23.
The authors analyse private returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector - that is, the increase in salary... more The authors analyse private returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector - that is, the increase in salary associated with an additional year of study. Mincer-type functions are estimated, drawing on a large sample from the Spanish Survey on Working Conditions, which allows robust estimations. Unlike previous analyses, the existence of an ability bias is considered explicitly through the use of instrumental variables techniques. The results show that, contrary to previous estimates based on OLS, the estimated returns in the tourism sector are not significantly different from those of the Spanish economy as a whole. The authors also provide additional evidence on the heterogeneity that is apparent when the tourism sector workforce is disaggregated by age, sex and work experience.
Rewards to education in the tourism sector: one step ahead
Lillo-Bañuls, A. y Casado-Díaz, J.M. (2010) “On the rewards to education in the tourism sector: One step ahead”, Tourism Economics, Vol. 16, nº. 1, 11-23.
The authors analyse private returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector - that is, the increase in salary... more The authors analyse private returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector - that is, the increase in salary associated with an additional year of study. Mincer-type functions are estimated, drawing on a large sample from the Spanish Survey on Working Conditions, which allows robust estimations. Unlike previous analyses, the existence of an ability bias is considered explicitly through the use of instrumental variables techniques. The results show that, contrary to previous estimates based on OLS, the estimated returns in the tourism sector are not significantly different from those of the Spanish economy as a whole. The authors also provide additional evidence on the heterogeneity that is apparent when the tourism sector workforce is disaggregated by age, sex and work experience.
Book Chapter : Mauritius
Seetaram, N. (2009). “Mauritius” (Aviation Policies and Tourism Development in Mauritius) Chapter 24 in "Aviation and Tourism: Implications for Leisure Travel" A. Graham, A. Papatheodorou and P. Forsyth (eds), Ashgate Publishing Ltd. UK, pp. 313-322.Keywords: Mauritius, Air Transport and Tourism
This paper studies the aviaiton policies and their implicatons for tourism development in Mauritius. This paper studies the aviaiton policies and their implicatons for tourism development in Mauritius.
Seetaram N, (2010). Use of Dynamic Panel Cointegration Approach to Model International Arrivals to Australia, Journal of Travel Research 2010 Vol. 49 No. 4 pp. 414-422.
Keywords : dynamic panel data panel cointegration tourism demand Australia
The aim of this article is to use dynamic panel data cointegration technique to determine elasticities of tourist... more The aim of this article is to use dynamic panel data cointegration technique to determine elasticities of tourist arrivals to Australia, using income, real exchange rates, and airfares as demand determinants. Annual data from 1991 to 2007 for arrivals from the 10 main markets are used. Previous studies that applied dynamic panel data sets in the tourism context have used the Arellano—Bond estimation technique. Because this technique produces biased and inconsistent estimates in samples with a small time span, this article uses the corrected least square dummy variable technique to generate unbiased and efficient parameter estimates. The results obtained show that demand is inelastic with respect to its determinants in the short run and elastic in the long run. The main implications of these results are that maintaining destination price competitiveness and consumer satisfaction should be rated very high in the priorities of the Australian tourism industry.
Seetaram, N. (2010). Computing Airfare Elasticities or Opening Pandora's Box, Research in Transportation Economics, 2010, vol. 26, issue 1, pages 27-36
key words Airfare elasticities; Tourism demand models; Measurement errors
Airfare elasticities are crucial for policy instruments for the stakeholders of tourism industry. Modellers attempting... more Airfare elasticities are crucial for policy instruments for the stakeholders of tourism industry. Modellers attempting to estimate these elasticities face several challenges in the absence of microeconomic data on consumer preferences. The aim of this paper is to offer a critical analysis of the practice of computing airfare elasticities from tourism demand studies. It identifies and discusses potential sources of measurement errors in the data and drawbacks that investigators face and assesses their implications for the estimated parameters in the respective models. The use of price of crude oil and distance between origin and destination as proxies for transportation costs are evaluated. It is recommended that authors be more systematic in reporting their results. They need to comment on the limitations of their elasticity estimates since these have repercussions on policy recommendations made based on their results.