Tourism Economics

This article examines the short- and medium-term effects of macroeconomic conditions at the time of graduation on the labour market integration of tourism university graduates. Using longitudinal data on 2616 graduates observed over 20 quarters post-graduation, we provide robust evidence that higher unemployment rates at labour market entry significantly impair subsequent career trajectories. Controlling for current macroeconomic conditions, we find that graduates entering the labour market during periods of high unemployment face increased odds of becoming inactive or unemployed in the medium term, along with a reduced likelihood of employment. These effects are explained by adverse economic conditions at entry, which limit opportunities for on-the-job training and skill acquisition, ultimately hindering career progression. We further show that these scarring effects do not differ between graduates holding a bachelor’s degree and those with a master’s degree, suggesting that postgraduate education does not provide additional protection against adverse entry conditions.

This study examines how the inclusion of carbon footprint costs influences the recreational benefits and pro-environmental behaviors of sport tourism participants. By monetizing participants’ pro-environmental behavior, this study provides a novel contribution to the valuation of environmental impacts in sport tourism. When carbon footprint costs are modeled as an independent variable within the Travel Cost Method framework, estimated recreational benefits increase by approximately NT$23. Despite the additional carbon costs, runners traveling by private car generate recreational benefits that exceed the associated environmental costs, reflecting the presence of an environmental value–action gap.

This paper examines the cross-sectional distribution of equity returns for service-oriented firms in the hospitality sector, focusing on the role of trading on equity (leverage) in their capital structures. Fama-MacBeth regressions were applied across four sub-industry portfolios sorted by book-to-market equity (BE _it /ME _it ) to assess the relationship between return volatility and a range of leverage proxies across different time periods and capital structure configurations. Additionally, the study ranks the most and least volatile sub-sector portfolios within the sample. Some portfolios exhibited deviations from the predictions of pecking order theory, while others aligned with theoretical expectations regarding levered equity returns and financial leverage. Overall, the analysis reveals that BE _it /ME _it firms experience substantial return volatility across most portfolio sorts, and that, on average, higher levels of short-term leverage are associated with an elevated risk–return tradeoff.

This study examines momentum dynamics across U.S. tourism equity subsectors from 2011–2023. While momentum is well documented in broad equity markets, its behavior within tourism remains underexplored despite the sector’s pronounced demand volatility, heterogeneous information environments, and crisis sensitivity—characteristics that theoretically amplify behavioral asset-pricing mechanisms. Using the Jegadeesh–Titman (1993) framework, we document pronounced heterogeneity in return predictability across airlines, dining, hotels, and leisure services, including both continuation and reversals. Using parametric and non-parametric methods, we document pronounced heterogeneity: airlines and dining exhibit long-horizon reversals consistent with overconfidence-driven correction; leisure services display intermediate-horizon continuation aligned with gradual information diffusion; hotels show muted predictability. Findings contribute to tourism economics by demonstrating how industry structure conditions behavioral asset pricing, with implications for subsector-focused portfolio allocation and investor relations.

Tourism and hospitality (T&H) firms in Europe face mounting pressure to innovate amid rapid digitalization, globalization, and competition. This study examines the relative innovativeness of T&H firms compared to other sectors, using harmonized data from the 2019 European Company Survey (ECS) covering all EU countries. Innovation is assessed across three dimensions (product, process, and marketing) and by degree of novelty, distinguishing radical (new-to-market) from new-to-firm innovations, while also capturing underlying innovation readiness. Results show that, compared to other sectors, T&H firms are less likely to introduce market-new innovations, but display a strong propensity for incremental and adaptive innovation. Innovation outcomes are primarily shaped by enabling capabilities rather than structural firm characteristics, with ICT adoption, female leadership, strategies focused on quality and location emerging as key drivers. Findings also reveal intra-sectoral heterogeneity, highlighting the need for differentiated policies tailored to T&H subsectors. This study provides the first cross-sectoral, cross-national assessment of innovation in European T&H SMEs, helping close an empirical gap and foster innovation and competitiveness in the tourism economy.

The current academic system places strong emphasis on producing an unsustainably large quantity of publications, many of which offer limited novelty. As a result, academics lack the time and the incentives to build meaningful connections with industry. This paper is written as a personal reflection, supported by existing literature. It argues that if academics wish to have a tangible impact on future development, closer and more effective collaboration with stakeholders is essential. The paper focuses primarily on industry as a key stakeholder and provides an overview of research avenues that could help generate relevant knowledge. Overall, the paper calls for a rethinking of the role of academia in shaping future development, with particular emphasis on the social sciences and tourism as a field of inquiry.

This paper revisits the canonical result that coordination among suppliers of complementary tourism services–such as accommodation, transport, and local activities–typically raises profits while increasing output and lowering consumer prices. We introduce a novel mechanism: labor market feedback. When firms share a common labor pool, coordination internalizes a cost externality that can overturn the traditional outcome. Extending the Cournot framework to include an upward-sloping labor supply, we show that under tight labor markets, coordination amplifies firms’ dual market power in product and labor markets. This enables firms to restrict output, raise prices, and depress wages, even as profits rise. Our findings challenge the established “anticommons” logic and carry implications for destination management and competition policy.

Digital payments are reshaping tourism in ways that extend beyond convenience or transaction efficiency. This research note argues that payment plays distinct yet interrelated roles across the tourism system: as an experiential touchpoint shaping tourists’ cognitive and affective evaluations, as a social access mechanism influencing inclusivity and perceived equity, and as a structural force that reconfigures power relations across the tourism value chain. By articulating these three conceptual propositions across micro (experience), meso (market access, equity, and participation), and macro (industry structure) levels, this note positions payment as an increasingly important yet underexplored research agenda for understanding the future of tourism.

Tourism consumption has become a major economic factor for modern societies. However, the environmental impact of tourism has become a significant concern, leading to a greater focus on sustainable tourism policies. Although governments and institutions have introduced frameworks to promote ecological transition in the tourism sector, several aspects of such policies remain unclear. This study provides an innovative attempt to examine the complex relationship between tourism demand and sustainable tourism policies. To do so, we adopt a gravity modeling framework to examine the incoming international tourism flows in Italian provinces. We find a positive association between tourism demand and sustainability labels suggesting that eco-labels are appreciated by tourists and play a role in the destination choice. It highlights the need for continued research to identify sustainable tourism policies that can balance the economic benefits of tourism with environmental considerations.

This study examines the impact of ski tourism on Colorado’s retail marijuana (RMJ) sales, leveraging county-level sales data and ski resort characteristics. Using a two-way fixed effects model, we analyze seasonal variations in RMJ sales across counties with differing ski resort acreages. Our findings indicate that ski resort counties experience significant increases in RMJ sales during peak ski months (December–March), with the most prominent effects observed in counties with the largest ski resorts. The largest ski resort county – Summit County – sees an estimated seasonal increase of $4.35 million in RMJ sales. We estimate the isolated extra-state ski tourism effects and find that while some sales may shift from non-ski counties, the net increase in RMJ sales for the top ski resort counties remains economically significant. Our set of results suggest ski tourism increases Colorado’s retail marijuana sales between $4.5 M and $9.4 M per year.

Tourism is a potentially important source of economic growth, but its sustainability has become a widespread concern. In the U.S., a lack of consistent indicators has precluded the measurement of sustainability over time and across locations. Here we propose using secondary data to develop a novel composite indicator while also addressing advantages and limitations of the survey-based approaches used in Europe to measure sustainability. We apply this indicator to recreation-dependent U.S. counties and find that while some counties improve across multiple sustainability dimensions, others experience inconsistent trends, highlighting the complex relationships between tourism development and local community well-being. We also use a subset of indicators to predict how these counties were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results using a nationally valid and consistent indicator suggest that tourism sustainability requires tailored local approaches to balance economic benefits with social and environmental dimensions, rather than one-size-fits-all strategies.

This study investigates the direct and spillover effects of hurricane strikes on tourist arrivals in the Caribbean. We utilize a physically based index of hurricane destruction and develop a measure of indirect hurricane exposure on nearby islands to identify spillovers. After accounting for variation in location, time, and location-specific seasonality, we find that hurricanes significantly decrease the number of tourist arrivals on the islands hit, but increase the number of arrivals on nearby islands. This tourism spillover effect is more pronounced for cruise ship arrivals than air arrivals and generally disappears after 1 year. This is likely due to cruise ships changing their routes to non-affected destinations in reaction to a hurricane, resulting in a significantly larger spillover. Our results suggest that policymakers could coordinate with the tourism industry to encourage the diversion of tourism by air to reduce the negative economic consequences of hurricanes in the region.

This paper analyses tourism demand elasticity to its main drivers. Unlike previous studies, it postulates that elasticities vary within a country or region. Since the latter typically comprise destinations with different historical, natural and cultural resources, which in turn attracts different segment of tourists, the paper hypotheses that demand elasticities depend on destination type. To test this hypothesis, it analysed tourism demand in Tuscany, a famous destination in Italy. We employed a dynamic panel threshold model, which allows for asymmetric effects of the regressors depending on destination type. The model was estimated using panel data disaggregated by the 10 provinces of Tuscany and the 11 main countries of tourist origin. They confirm that demand elasticities vary by destination type and provide insights for implementing destination-specific policies.

This study examines the determinants of agritourism participation and willingness to pay (WTP) for locally produced food. Using survey data from 374 residents in Georgia, U.S.A., the study employed a binary logit model to identify participation drivers, structural equation modeling (SEM) to test attitudinal relationships, and a multinomial logit (MNL) model to profile WTP segments. Findings of the study suggest that environmental concern, health awareness, and personal image positively influence attitudes toward agritourism, which in turn predict WTP for local food. The MNL analysis segments consumers, showing that younger, educated, married, and employed individuals are more likely to belong to higher WTP categories, while household income is not a significant predictor. The study advances theoretical understanding of agritourism participation and WTP for local food while offering strategic marketing guidance for practitioners.

Regional tourism economies are characterized by uneven development and spatially dependent growth, yet existing work tends to address potential measurement, dynamic evolution, and spatial spillovers in isolation rather than within an integrated framework. Drawing on panel data from Southwest China for 2011–2024, this study measures tourism economic development potential (TEDP) using the entropy-based TOPSIS method, characterizes its temporal evolution through kernel density estimation, and identifies spatial spillover effects with spatial econometric models. TEDP in the region follows an upward trajectory alongside persistent intra-regional disparities. Tourism revenue leakage inhibits local TEDP, whereas residents’ income, per capita consumption expenditure, education level, and digital technology positively drive it. High-potential areas generate positive spillovers on adjacent regions, though revenue leakage attenuates these effects. The integrated measurement–evolution–spillover framework offers a transferable analytical template for evaluating regional tourism economies and informing differentiated coordination strategies.

A comprehensive assessment of extreme weather risks’ impact on tourism provides the scientific basis for climate-resilient tourism, yet research from the tourist-origin perspective remains limited. We establish a conceptual framework based on Protection Motivation Theory and present supporting empirical evidence. Using China Family Panel Studies data and extreme weather risk data, we demonstrate asymmetric effects: extreme high temperature elevates household tourism consumption, while extreme rainfall reduces it. Internet use significantly moderates the effects of extreme high temperature and extreme rainfall, while income moderates the extreme rainfall-consumption relationship. Married households and non-agricultural households demonstrate stronger negative reactions to extreme rainfall. Furthermore, the increase in extreme high temperature-driven consumption stems from additional consumption. This study offers specific tourism management implications in addition to enhancing the knowledge system regarding the extreme weather effects on tourism.

While it is increasingly acknowledged that travel participation is affected not only by travel constraints but also by the personal importance of travel, the drivers of this perceived travel importance are still poorly understood. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1990–2021), this paper offers first exploratory evidence on the socio-demographic and psychological determinants of personal importance of travel. Travel importance increases with household income and decreases with ill health and the number of children. Women, first- and second-generation migrants, risk lovers, and those scoring higher on the personality traits of openness and extraversion also consider travel more important. The application of the age-period-cohort model suggests that the personal importance of travel declines with age and displays some variation across generations. These findings provide insights for tourism practitioners and policymakers seeking to understand which population groups consider travel more important and, consequently, are more likely to undertake travel.

This study investigates the mediating role of environmental taxes in the relationship between climate change and international tourism, while examining heterogeneity across global income groups. Using a balanced panel of 214 countries from 2015 to 2024, the analysis applies a Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) and validates findings through a Praise–Winsten regression as a robustness check. Results indicate that climate change negatively impacts global tourism performance (international arrivals and receipts), though the magnitude of impact varies by income groups: highest in low-income economies and lowest in high-income countries. Also, environmental tax mediates the climate change-tourism relationship, channelling the negative impact in low-income economies, and yielding positive adaptive effects in high-income countries. The findings highlight the policy imperative of aligning environmental taxes with countries’ income level to curb the negative impact of climate change on tourism performance.

This study examines the evolution of persistence in regional tourism demand across Spain following the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis estimates fractional integration models with trends and seasonal components using monthly hotel arrivals from 1999 to 2025. Pre-pandemic tourism exhibited moderate persistence, with shocks ultimately mean-reverting across most regions. In contrast, estimates for the extended sample through August 2025 indicate systematically higher values of the fractional differencing parameter (d), particularly for non-resident tourism, implying slower mean reversion and more prolonged shock effects. Island and northern coastal regions register the largest increases in persistence, whereas domestic tourism remains comparatively stable. Overall, the results suggest that the inclusion of the COVID-19 period is associated with changes in the persistence and adjustment dynamics of regional tourism demand. The observed patterns are consistent with longer-lasting shock effects in some regions and visitor segments, especially in non-resident tourism flows.

The integration of cultural and tourism industries serves as a pivotal engine for regional high-quality economic development; however, its economic performance exhibits significant heterogeneity in practice. Utilizing panel data from Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2000 to 2022, this study treats the designations of “National Historical and Cultural City” (NHCC) and “China Excellent Tourism City” (CETC) as quasi-natural experiments. By employing a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) framework, supplemented by instrumental variable (IV) estimation and a series of robustness checks, we identify the differentiated impacts of cultural policies, tourism policies, and their overlap on urban economic growth. The findings reveal a fundamental asymmetry in the transmission mechanisms of different policy orientations. Cultural designations primarily stimulate “passenger flow” through symbolic branding effects, whereas tourism-oriented policies are more effective at activating “logistics flow” channels due to their role in driving infrastructure and commercial networks, thereby generating stronger momentum for economic growth. To address how cultural and tourism sectors can be effectively integrated, this research further identifies two core pathways. First, the mere “stacking” of policies does not equate to functional integration; true synergy requires “synchronous implementation” to overcome the time lag in administrative and industrial coupling, thereby achieving coordinated growth in both passenger and logistics flows. Second, “culture-business-tourism integration” facilitated by a dynamic business environment serves as a critical moderating mechanism that amplifies policy dividends and optimizes economic outcomes. This study provides city-level evidence for understanding the complex mechanisms of cultural–tourism integration and offers policy insights for achieving high-quality, coordinated regional development.