Tourism economics

The Impact of Tourism on Income Inequality: An Econometric Assessment

by Suraj Pant

published in UCLA Undergraduate Journal of Economics, Winter 2011.

Current data show that tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world economy. The economic literature... more Current data show that tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world economy. The economic literature explains that in line with an outward-oriented growth strategy, tourism was promoted as a means of development during the 1970’s by many international agencies. Empirical investigations on the impact of tourism show that the greater focus on tourism has been beneficial, as tourism has had a significant positive impact on growth. However, the distributional consequences of the growth through tourism have not been investigated. This paper presents original research on tourism’s impact on income inequality using cross-country and panel data regressions. Results from the regression analyses show that the tourism sector has decreased gross income inequality in the sample of countries used in this study. The results also demonstrate that domestic tourism contributes more to decreasing income inequality than international tourism does and weakly support the hypothesis that the tourism sector decreases income inequality more than other sectors linked to tourism.

Teoría de la Renta del Suelo Urbano y Turismo. Casos en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

by Pablo Vanevic

Co-authored with Carlos Icaza

Los ámbitos urbanos y la etapa actual del capitalismo parecen ser causa y consecuencia al mismo tiempo de las... more Los ámbitos urbanos y la etapa actual del capitalismo parecen ser causa y consecuencia al mismo tiempo de las transformaciones socio-espaciales que estamos experimentando
en las últimas décadas.
Prácticamente no existen estudios sobre la generación de rentas urbanas, sus tipologías, dinámicas y manifestaciones, en el turismo. Es por ello que, convencidos de que la pregunta más importante a hacernos no es el cómo, sino el por qué, reconsideramos los aportes de Samuel Jaramilloa la luz del fenómeno turístico para contribuir con algunas explicaciones sobre las manifestaciones concretas del fenómeno en nuestras ciudades.

Tourism's contribution to the Yugoslav economy

by Mia Mikic

How Luxury & Tourism transform economic unsettlement into steady growth

by Alvaro HIDALGO

Luxury, Tourism & Economic growth Luxury, Tourism & Economic growth

Immigration and Tourism Demand: Empirical Evidence from Australia

by Neelu Seetaram

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.)

by Neelu Seetaram

Annals of Tourism Research - Forthcoming

A review of “Tourism and Poverty”

by Cristina Jönsson

Published in Tourism Geographies 2012 1-3. Available online 20 Feb, 2012

Migration Impacts on Australian Inbound and Outbound VFR and Total Tourism Flows

by Neelu Seetaram

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

by Neelu Seetaram

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

by Neelu Seetaram

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.

by Neelu Seetaram

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.

Potenzialità economiche della cultura e v@lorizzazione negata in Sicilia

by Elisa Bonacini

paper presented at "Un'altra Siracusa - Primo Incontro: Il 'valore' della cultura per il turismo", Siracusa, Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi, 21 ottobre 2011

Dopo un inquadramento generale sul potenziale economico inespresso del nostro patrimonio culturale, il contributo... more Dopo un inquadramento generale sul potenziale economico inespresso del nostro patrimonio culturale, il contributo approfondisce il ‘peso’ economico di Internet e l’arretratezza digitale dell’Italia, che corre il rischio di entrare a far parte di un Terzo Mondo Digitale anche a causa di una serie di impedimenti legislativi allo sviluppo. Infine, si anticipano alcuni risultati di una ricerca in c.d.s. (La visibilit@ sul web del patrimonio culturale siciliano: criticità e prospettive attraverso un survey on-line. Con Guida multimediale ai musei siciliani sul web) nella quale si evidenzia come, tranne alcune rare eccezioni, sia ancora scadente la qualità della comunicazione del patrimonio culturale siciliano.

Hidden Sights: Tourism, Representation, and Lonely Planet Cambodia

by Matthew Tegelberg

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.

Tourism policy innovations of an Indian state (Haryana) and their implications

by Chanchal Sharma

Gay Tourism in a Sun and Beach Destination

by Jorge E. Araña

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

by Jorge E. Araña

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.

Repeated Dichotomous Formats for Eliciting Willingness to Pay: Simultaneous Estimation and Anchoring Effects

by Jorge E. Araña

Araña, J.E. and León, C.J. (2007). Environmental and Resource Economics, 36 (4), 75-497

Repeated dichotomous choice contingent valuation data are generated from responses to a succession of binary questions... more Repeated dichotomous choice contingent valuation data are generated from responses to a succession of binary questions regarding alternative prices for an environmental good. In this paper we propose a simultaneous equation model that allows for endogeneity and error correlation across the responses at each stage of the bidding process. The model allows us to study the evolution of anchoring effects after the second dichotomous choice question. Estimation involves the Bayesian techniques of Gibbs sampling and data augmentation, and the application focuses on the preservation value of a natural area. The results for a data set involving up to four successive dichotomous choice questions show that restricted multiple-bounded models are rejected by the data with the general model. In addition, willingness to pay tends to stabilize after the second stage in the elicitation process for the general unrestricted model. When taking anchoring effects into consideration, it is revealed that individuals’ responses in the latter stages are influenced by the sequence of bid prices offered in earlier questions. Nevertheless, they do not have a significant effect on welfare estimates.

Tourist Use and Preservation Benefits from Big Game Sport-Fishing in the Canary Islands

by Jorge E. Araña

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.

The Impact of Terrorism on Tourism Demand

by Jorge E. Araña

Araña, J.E. and León, C.J. (2008). Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), 299-315.

Terrorism and threats to national security are documented to have impacts on tourism demand. This paper focuses on the... more Terrorism and threats to national security are documented to have impacts on tourism demand. This paper focuses on the short-run impacts of the September 11 attacks in New York on tourist preferences for competing destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. The proposed approach is a stated preference model based on two different samples taken at different points in time in relation to terrorist attacks. Results show that the attacks caused a shock to tourists’ utility, and a change in the image profile of destinations. Moreover, it was found that while some destinations experienced a strongly negative impact on their image and attractiveness, others were upgraded as a consequence of terror events.

Flexible Mixture Distribution Modeling of Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation with Heterogenity

by Jorge E. Araña

Araña, J.E. and León, C.J. (2005). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2005, 170–188

This paper considers the performance of a model of mixture normal distributions for dichotomous choice contingent... more This paper considers the performance of a model of mixture normal distributions for dichotomous choice contingent valuation data, which allows the researcher to consider unobserved heterogeneity across the sample. The model is flexible and approaches a semi-parametric model, since the normality assumption can be removed by augmenting the number of mixture distributions. Bayesian inference allows for simple estimation of the model and is particularly appropriate for conducting inference with finite data sets. The proposed model is compared with other semi-parametric and parametric approaches using Monte Carlo simulation, under alternative assumptions regarding heteroskedasticity and heterogeneity in sample observations. It is found that the mixture normal model reduces bias and improves performance with respect to an alternative semi-parametric model, particularly when the sample is characterized by heterogeneous preferences. The application of the model to empirical data on the recreational value of
natural areas in the Canary Islands confirmed the expected result.