The Influence of Income and Currency Changes on Tourist Inflow to Norwegian Campsites: The Case of Swedish and German Visitors

Johannes Idsø,Randi Hammervold,Leiv Opstad

doi:10.3390/economies9030104

Abstract

There are few published articles on the demand for campsites, despite this being an important segment of the tourism industry. The purpose of this study was to gain further understanding of this topic. Using publicly available data over a period of 20 years, income and currency elasticity were estimated for German and Swedish camping tourists by using a natural logarithmic regression model with time series data. The results showed that both income and the exchange rate influenced the number of overnight stays, but the impact was rather small. The income elasticity for Swedish visitors was significant with a value of about 0.5, while it was zero and not significant for German camping tourists. Appreciation of the euro was associated with more visitors from Germany, but the estimated exchange rate elasticity was below 1.0 (and significant). A stronger Swedish currency relative to the Norwegian currency did not appear to have an effect. However, a stronger Swedish exchange rate, measured in euros, had a positive impact on Swedish camping visitors in Norway. The reason might be that more Swedish residents spend holidays abroad, and there is complementarity among the neighboring countries. Such calculations provide useful information for tourist industry planning.

Highlights

Introduction and BackgroundTravel and tourism are important parts of the economy for many countries, and the exchange rate has a considerable impact on cross-border travel
The lagged dependent variable of the demand for overnight stays at campsites was significant for both Sweden and Germany for lag t − 1 and lag t − 2
For the model of Germany, the independent variable ln (EEReuro,NOK,t-lag ) was included, but the variable ln (EERSEK,euro,t-lag ) was excluded. These two variables were relatively strongly correlated in our data (r = 0.79 with p-value = 0.0000), and with both variables included in the autoregressive distributed lag models (ADLs) model, neither was significant, presumably due to multicollinearity

Summary

Introduction

Travel and tourism are important parts of the economy for many countries, and the exchange rate has a considerable impact on cross-border travel. This type of tourism is sensitive to changes in exchange rates, prices, and revenues Stabler et al (2009). Camping tourism has traditionally been associated with Europe, Australia, and North. There seems to be increased attention toward campsites in Europe and North America Ram and Hall (2020). Camping provides flexibility and can be combined with other activities, such as fishing and mountain climbing, allowing families to closely interact with nature. This article aimed to provide a little more insight into this sector

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