Determining Tourist Expenditures: Do Metrics and Levels Matter?

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze and compare expenditures made by independent tourists, measured using various metrics. The empirical application relies on quantile regression analysis and examines the determinant factors of different types of expenditure, while also accounting for spending variations among heavy, moderate, and light spenders.
 The empirical findings confirm the high complexity of the nature of tourist expenditures. The evidence indicates that the effects of the independent variables vary not only with respect to the expenditure metric but also as a function of expenditure level. Independent tourist expenditures across all quantiles and metrics depend upon the size of the traveling party, duration of stay, type of accommodation, and whether the tourists are from the US Moreover, men spent more than women among light and heavy spenders; social media increases the expenditure for moderate and heavy spenders; and for heavy spenders, business traveler expenditure is less than other travelers.