International Inbound Tourism Research Articles

Empirical Evidence on Tourism, Geopolitical Risk and Economic Policy Uncertainty Relationships in Malaysia

Malaysia, celebrated for its rich cultural diversity, vibrant cities, and pristine natural landscapes, stands prominently on the global tourism map. However, the tourism industry is susceptible to the impact of geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty. These external factors, shaped by global events and policy changes, can significantly influence the tourism landscape in Malaysia. Given this significance, the study aims to empirically investigate the cointegrating relationship between international inbound tourism levels (tourist arrivals), geopolitical risk (GPR index), and economic policy uncertainty (EU index) in Malaysia. The analysis uses quarterly observations from the first quarter of 2000 to the fourth quarter of 2022. The study employs the Granger Causality test, supported by structural VAR impulse functions and variance decomposition analysis to illustrate how economic policy uncertainty responds to shocks in tourist arrivals. The significant causal relationship observed moves from tourist arrivals to economic policy uncertainty. In other words, the study implies that variations in tourist arrivals have a lasting impact on economic policy uncertainty but not necessarily on geopolitical risk. This study provides valuable implications for policy planning and decision-making. Policymakers should consider the implications of shifts in tourism patterns for economic policy uncertainty. The absence of a long-term relationship between tourist arrivals and geopolitical risk may suggest conducting separate risk assessments to manage geopolitical risks that may affect the tourism industry in Malaysia.

Does Good Governance Influence Foreign Tourist Inflows?

In recent years, tourism has emerged as a key driver of economic growth, as countries are increasingly proactive in improving governance standards to enhance tourism competitiveness in attracting foreign tourists. This article explores the nexus between good governance and international tourism in the US during 2008–2019 using the continuous wavelet transform method and maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform method to examine the comovement and lead-lag relationships in the time–frequency domains. We find significant interrelatedness between good governance indicators and international inbound tourism indicators in the medium- and long-run frequency domains as the governance indicators like control of corruption, regulatory quality, the rule of law, and voice & accountability substantially affect tourist arrivals. As a robustness measure, we provide additional evidence using Indian data. Overall, our results provide strong evidence that good governance matters for foreign tourist inflows, thereby enhancing the tourism competitiveness of the host country. The policy implication is that countries must enhance their good governance to boost sustainable tourism competitiveness in attracting tourist inflows.

Identifying a destination’s optimal tourist market mix: Does a superior portfolio model exist?

Extant tourism research has used various portfolio model types to determine optimal tourist market mixes which simultaneously maximize total tourist expenditure and minimise the instability of international inbound tourism demand. We analyse the three portfolio models that have been applied in the tourism literature: two varieties of a levels model (that use the level of tourist arrivals, or bed nights to quantify tourist activity) and a growth rates model (that deploys the growth in the level of tourist activity). Applying these models using per capita expenditure in four distinctively different destination countries (Australia, Greece, Japan, and USA), we demonstrate that the Levels Model 1 is superior to the Levels Model 2 and the Growth Rates Model. It produces solutions that provide noticeably higher tourist expenditure with less instability of international tourism demand than the status quo. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for tourism policy makers and destination marketers are discussed.

ECOLOGICAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE NATIONAL PARKS OF BELARUS

The article is devoted to the development of ecological tourism in the national parks of Belarus. The methodological basis of the study was a systematic scientific approach, comparative geographical, cartographic, expert assessment methods. As a result of the research, the data on environmental requirements for ecological tourism organisation in the national parks of the Republic of Belarus such as state environmental institutions "National Park "Narochansky", "National Park "Braslav Lakes", "National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha", "National Park "Pripyatsky" are systematized. Landscape features of the national park’s territories are considered as a factor determining the direction of ecotourism activities. The analysis of ecotourism infrastructure development, innovativeness and complexity of the offered tourist services is given. Prospective directions of development of domestic and international inbound ecological tourism in the national parks of Belarus are substantiated.

Asymmetric elasticities in inbound international tourism demand?

ABSTRACT This study examines whether price and income elasticities in international tourism demand can be asymmetric depending on the direction of change. We consider Fiji as a reference destination with the following source markets: Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the USA. A sample from 1978 to 2018 is considered. Symmetric price and income elasticities are found for Australia and New Zealand. Asymmetric price and symmetric income elasticities are found for Canada and Japan. Price and income asymmetries are found for the UK and USA. The implication for research on tourism demand is that linear models may be miss-specified and that better predictions of tourism demand may result from the nonlinear models.

Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty and Pandemic Uncertainty on International Tourism: What do We Learn From COVID-19?

Uncertainty is an overarching aspect of life that is particularly pertinent to the present COVID-19 pandemic crisis; as seen by the pandemic’s rapid worldwide spread, the nature and level of uncertainty have possibly increased due to the possible disconnects across national borders. The entire economy, especially the tourism industry, has been dramatically impacted by COVID-19. In the current study, we explore the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and pandemic uncertainty (PU) on inbound international tourism by using data gathered from Italy, Spain, and the United States for the years 1995–2021. Using the Quantile on Quantile (QQ) approach, the study confirms that EPU and PU negatively affected inbound tourism in all states. Wavelet-based Granger causality further reveals bi-directional causality running from EPU to inbound tourism and unidirectional causality from PU to inbound tourism in the long run. The overall findings show that COVID-19 has had a strong negative effect on tourism. So resilient skills are required to restore a sustainable tourism industry.

Respiratory Travel Medicine

International tourist arrivals continue to increase over time due to global economic growth, increasing middle class in developing countries, technological advances, innovative business concepts, cost-effective travel, and facilitation of visas. The increase in tourist visits has resulted in health problems due to the trips. Respiratory tract infections are the main reason tourists seek medical care. Respiratory infections occur in 20% of all tourists, almost the same as the incidence of diarrhea. The majority of international inbound tourism involved air travel. Though physiological changes happen in everyone while air travel, people with lung disease are at high risk for significant complications and necessitate a specific risk assessment strategy. A pre-flight evaluation is conducted if there is any uncertainty regarding the patient's fitness for flight and the effect of eligibility to fly. This literature review summarized the important aspect of travel medicine from the respiratory medicine point of view.

National tourist rating of Russian regions: Typological diversity

In the context of increasing interest in the development of the tourist and recreational sphere of activity, the rating of Russian regions, which makes it possible to identify leaders and outsiders in the development of domestic and international inbound tourism, is one of the effective tools for strategic planning and management at the federal and regional levels of government, at the same time contributing to the formation of preferences of Russian citizens about the possibilities of leisure and recreation. The aim of the study is to identify typological groups of Russian regions and the main trends in the development of their tourist attractiveness based on the dynamics of the values of the National Tourist Rating for the period 2016-2020. The approach based on the dynamics of the values of the National Tourism Rating for the period 2016-2020 and their medians allows us to identify typological groups of the regions of the Russian Federation in terms of tourist attractiveness, oftourist potential and popularity among domestic and foreign tourists, as well as to determine the main trends in its development.The open data of the official website of the National Tourism Rating for the period 2016-2020 as well as scientific developments on the issues under study by Russian researchers are used. The analysis revealed five typological groups of Russian regions in terms of the level of tourist attractiveness: high (12.9%), increased (16.5%), medium (18.8%), insufficient (32.9%) and low (18.8%). In addition, three main trends in the development of regional tourist attractiveness have been identified. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourist development of Russian regions is different. The part of the regions of the Russian Federation received benefits and strengthened their positions with varying degrees of growth in the National Tourism Rating (38.8%), a large share reduced their values (47%), the fifth part of the regions retained their positions in the ranking (21.2%). The material is of interest to researchers focusing on the tourist competitiveness and tourist attractiveness of Russia in general and in the regional context, to regional authorities, specialists as well as students of specialized institutions.

Road mapping recovery from the impacts of multiple crises: framing the role of domestic self-drive tourism in regional South Australia

ABSTRACT In regional South Australia, a combination of droughts, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic has presented dynamic challenges to tourism economies. As inbound international tourism remains unlikely to return to pre-COVID-19 levels for the foreseeable future, the importance of domestic tourism has become further pronounced, most notably in regions that have been affected by major declines in tourist flows. This exploratory qualitative study reports on regional South Australians’ participation in domestic tourism during the pandemic and the factors that have influenced how they travel. Our findings reveal that participants had predominantly engaged in self-drive tourism due to the feelings of safety it offered in contrast to other modes of transport, the opportunities it permitted in fostering reconnections and supporting wellbeing, and because of its ability to evoke positive feelings and emotions that were structured around adventure and discovery. Moreover, it was additionally observed that self-drive tourism offered practical opportunities to engage in altruistic pursuits to support crisis-affected regions across the state. Therefore, this paper offers timely insights into the behaviours of regional South Australians during the pandemic and how they utilised self-drive tourism to support both personal and community recovery from the impacts of multiple crises across the state.

Effects of Price Competitiveness on Tourism Performance under Different Economic Conditions

Many scholars perceive price competitiveness as a highly relevant element of tourism competitiveness in improving tourism performance. We focused our research interest specifically to understand whether price competitiveness is an important policy instrument in attracting international tourists and their spending. Our empirical study focused on how price competitiveness behaves as a predictor of tourism performance in different economic conditions and whether price competitiveness is a significant cause of tourism competitiveness in improving tourism performance. For that purpose, we conducted empirical analysis within two stages: moderation analysis to understand how price competitiveness influences tourism performance from the point of view of inbound international tourism and how this relationship behaves in different economic conditions; and mediation analysis to understand whether price competitiveness is relevant cause for tourist competitiveness in improving tourism performance. This study has revealed different views about price competitiveness and its influence on the tourism industry. The findings indicate that price competitiveness has rather limited effects on the outcomes of the tourism industry and is not a cause of overall tourism competitiveness in improving tourism performance.

Modelling inbound international tourism demand in Australia: Lessons from the pandemics

The study explores how international tourism demand in Australia is impacted not only by traditional economic factors but also by uncertainty and risk emanating from pandemics. Using an augmented demand model the paper examines the main determinants of tourism in Australia during the favourable period and what lessons can be drawn to reboot international tourism in the post‐pandemic situation. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind, which employs a robust second‐generation panel model to examine the impact of pandemic augmenting economic uncertainty upon the international tourism demand in Australia.

Measuring the effects of tourists’ relative willingness to spend and third-degree price discrimination on inbound tourism expenditure differentials

Tourism expenditures are determined by a set of antecedents that reflect tourists’ willingness and ability to spend, and de facto incremental monetary outlays at which willingness and ability is transformed into total expenditures. Based on the neoclassical theoretical argument of utility-constrained expenditure minimization, we extend the current literature by applying a sustainability-based segmentation criterion, namely, the Legatum Prosperity IndexTM to the decomposition of a total expenditure differential into tourists’ relative willingness to spend and an upper bound of third-degree price discrimination, using mean-level and conditional quantile estimates. Our results indicate that understanding the price–quantity composition of international inbound tourism expenditure differentials assists agents in the tourism industry in their quest for profit maximization.

Geopolitical risk, economic growth, economic uncertainty and international inbound tourism: an Indian Illustration

PurposeThis paper aims to consider the role of geopolitical risk in explaining tourism demand in India, a major tourist destination of the Asian region. Furthermore, the study also considers how in addition to geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, economic growth, exchange rate, inflation and trade openness impact tourism demand.Design/methodology/approachThe Bayer and Hanck (2013) method of cointegration is applied to explore the relationship between geopolitical risk and tourism demand. Furthermore, the study has also used the auto distributed lag model to determine whether there is a long-run cointegrating association between tourism demand, geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, economic growth, exchange rate and trade openness. Finally, the vector error correction model confirms the direction of causality across the set of the major variables.FindingsThis paper finds that geopolitical risk adversely impacts inbound international travel to India. This study also obtains the consistency of the results across different estimation techniques controlling for important macro variables. The Granger causality test confirms the unidirectional causality from geopolitical risk to tourism and further from economic uncertainty to tourism. The findings from the study confirm that geopolitical risks have long-term repercussions on the tourism sector in India. The results indicate that there is an urgent need to develop a pre-crisis management plan to protect the aura of Indian tourism. The tourism business houses should develop skilful marketing strategies in the post-crisis to boost the confidence of the tourists.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper provides valuable practical implications to tourism business houses. The tourism business houses can explore geopolitical risk measure and economic policy uncertainty measure to analyse the demand for international tourism in India. Further, the major stakeholders can establish platforms to help tourists to overcome the fear associated with geopolitical risk.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to explore the geopolitical risks and their long-run consequences in the context of tourism in India. The study puts emphasis on the role of national policy to maintain peace otherwise it would be detrimental to tourism.

Concerning the current trends in international and Russian tourism

Subject. This article discusses the issues and problems related to international tourism and Russian inbound tourism. Objectives. The article aims to identify current trends in international tourism and summarize best international practices. The article is also aimed at finding ways to address the problems of inbound tourism development in Russia. Methods. For the study, I used the methods of comparative analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification, grouping, and the method of index numbers. Results. The article describes the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on international tourism, its individual sectors (rural tourism), as well as countries. It summarizes the experience of the development of international tourism in advanced countries and highlights the problems of inbound tourism in Russia and the ways to solve them. Conclusions. The coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on the international tourism industry, but it cannot significantly reduce the interest in travel. To solve the problems of inbound tourism in Russia, it is necessary to develop new types of tourism and improve legislation in this area at the federal level.

Calibrating the Impacts of Regional Trade Integration and Renewable Energy Transition on the Sustainability of International Inbound Tourism Demand in South Asia

This paper aims to evaluate the overarching relationships between International Inbound Tourism Demand (IITD), regional trade integration and Renewable Energy Transition (RET) in the context of selected South Asian economies between 1990 and 2016. The results from the panel data econometric analyses, accounting for cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity issues, showed that higher degrees of intra-regional trade between the South Asian economies exert positive impacts on the IITD in South Asia. Similarly, undergoing a RET was found to stimulate the IITD further. Besides, the joint favorable impacts of regional trade integration and RET on South Asia’s IITD were also ascertained. Therefore, these findings impose key policy implications concerning the pertinence of strengthening regional trade cooperation between the South Asian neighbors and boosting renewable energy consumption for enhancing the IITD further.

A social network analysis of international tourism flow

Using a social network analysis, this study explored how the structure of international tourism has changed longitudinally. The international tourism remained relatively stable from 2002 to 2014. The networks of outbound and inbound international tourism have decentralized gradually. Based on a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) analysis, each of four study years of international tourism network was found to be correlated. The groups formed by CONCOR analysis have similarities in terms of their continent, language, culture, economy, and population. Furthermore, outdegree, indegree, betweenness, eigenvector centrality are correlated with each other, and GDP is correlated with outdegree, indegree, betweenness, eigenvector centrality, and population.

Tourist business in ukraine: state and prospects of development

The purpose of the article is to study the role and importance of tourism business in the Ukrainian economy, to analyze the factors influencing the development of tourism business and to develop recommendations for improving the socio-economic development of Ukraine. The main scientific results of the study were obtained using a set of general scientific and special methods, namely: abstract-logical (in determining the main tendencies and directions of optimization of international tourist flows in Ukraine), statistical method (for processing and analysis of information on the number of participants of international inbound and outbound tourism), systematic analysis and synthesis (to establish features of development of tourist flows in Ukraine), abstract-theoretical method (for theoretical gene- ralization) and forming conclusions). The article investigates the main publications of domestic and foreign scientists on the tendency of development of the Ukrainian tourist industry. The role and importance of tourism business in the economy is considered, the factors of influence on the development of the tourism industry of Ukraine are analyzed. The main problems related to the development of the Ukrainian tourism business are investigated. The dynamics and structure of tourist organizations are considered. The analysis of tourist flows of Ukraine using statistical methods is conducted, the dynamics of relevant indicators over the past 9 years are presented in tables. The main shortcomings, problems and priority directions of development of the tourist industry of Ukraine have been identified. Prospects of tourism business development in Ukraine are substantiated, probable ways of solving problems of tourism industry are given. The implementation of the set of measures in the article will allow to use tourism resources more effectively, integrate into the world tourist community, increase the accessibility of Ukraine’s export tourism potential. One of the priorities is to attract investments in the tourism industry, including the construction of roadside service facilities, as well as collective and individual accommodation facilities in the administrative regions of the country. Creating the necessary conditions for the development of tourism in Ukraine as a highly profitable sector of the economy will contribute not only to the development of the tourism industry, but also to a more successful reform of the entire economic system.

АНАЛІЗ СТАНУ ГОТЕЛЬНОГО ГОСПОДАРСТВА РЕГІОНІВ УКРАЇНИ

UDC 338.48; JEL Classification: L 830 Purpose. On basing on the definition of unresolved problematic issues, it is necessary to determine the state and dynamics of the development of the hotel industry in the regions of Ukraine, as an integral part of the tourism industry, that will give opportunity to identify areas for the prospective development of the hotel industry in the Ukrainian regions. Findings. The article studies the state and dynamics of the development of hotel industry in the regions of Ukraine for the period 2010-2016. Based on this, heterogeneity in the development of hotel industry in the regions of Ukraine was found and it was determined that the general trend is directed towards reducing the number of hotels and similar accommodation facilities. In addition, a decrease in the size of investments from 2010 to 2016 was found to be almost 58%. The decrease in the number of hotels and similar means of accommodation and investment in their creation and development was associated with a decrease in the number of tourists, respectively, negatively affected the general state of the tourism industry in Ukraine. Practical value. As a solution to a particular problem, it was proposed to focus on creating a network of specialized small family hotels and pensions in nature, which will revive the recreational direction of tourism. It was also proposed to create a specialized state-owned housing and communal enterprise such as a “hostel”, the activity of which should be aimed at providing “budget-friendly” places for “backpackers”, both domestically and for foreign tourists, among which such hotels are in demand. The proposed measures will create a balanced market for hotel industry and hotel services within the regions of Ukraine (not only the middle and highest price categories, but also “budget”), which in turn will lead to the stimulation of national and international inbound tourism.

The effects of exchange rate, price competitiveness indices and taxation on international tourism demand in Malaysia

This study examines the effect of Malaysia’s domestic taxation policy, price and exchange competitiveness with neighboring countries on international tourism demand in Malaysia based on the quantile estimation. Using monthly-based time series data, which set over the period of 1996-2017, we adopt the bootstrap quantile regression model to provide a comprehensive relationship of international tourism demand theory in Malaysia. The empirical results show that sales tax has a negative relationship with international inbound tourism demand, mainly at the middle quantile stages. Moreover, we also found that price competition from Thailand has a positive influence on Malaysia’s tourism demand; and appreciation of Indonesia’s exchange rate competitiveness tends to lead Malaysia’s tourism demand. These empirical findings open up new insights for policymakers in Malaysia as to how to improve fiscal policies and enhance continual increase of international inbound tourism demand in the upcoming years.

Modelling inbound international tourism demand in small Pacific Island countries

ABSTRACTIn this study, we estimate inbound international tourism demand models at the individual source market-destination and overall destination levels for Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu from 2002Q1 to 2016Q2 and Samoa from 2002Q4 to 2015Q3. Tourism demand is measured by visitor arrivals, tourism prices, the source country’s real GDP, tourism prices in substitute destinations, seasonality and structural breaks, all of which are considered plausible determinants. The models are estimated using the ARDL-bounds approach, structural breaks are identified using the Bai and Perron break test, and seasonality is tested using the US Census Bureau’s X-13 ARIMA-SEATS methodology. The study is important because it presents new evidence on price, income, and substitute price sensitivity, word of mouth, seasonality, and structural-breaks effects in Pacific island destinations.