Tourism Growth Versus Economic Development: An Analysis by Multivariate Techniques

Abstract

The debate about the role of tourism as economic development tool is not new, although in recent years, there have been interesting contributions to it. Many institutions have highlighted the importance of tourism as an engine of social transformation and tool for promoting economic development and growth potential, to the point that tourism is expected to generate over a horizon of no more than ten years 11.3 % of world GDP and 8.3% of employment. The economic literature has been agreeing with these statements, although there is growing consensus about the error of accepting this statement with absolute. The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it is to determine whether there is a relationship between the growth of tourism in a country and its level of economic development, and if so, with which sign, and on the other, to identify the factors that favour or hinder this relationship. The analysis was performed at a country scale using canonical correspondence analysis. This technique allows one to determine whether or not there exists a relationship (and in which sense) between two multidimensional variables – in this case, the growth of tourism and economic development.