International tourists’ spending on traveling inside a destination: does local happiness matter?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the travel spending behaviour of international tourists inside happier destinations. The empirical model is tested for 58 developed and developing countries. Applying various estimation methods and two different measures of nations’ happiness, the results show that tourists spend more on travelling inside a destination where local people are happier. In addition, we find that foreign tourists’ expenditures on travelling are higher in countries with a higher quality of travel infrastructure and larger numbers of World Heritage sites. Our results provide some implications for tourism planners and authorities.