nep-tur New Economics Papers
on Tourism Economics
Issue of 2020‒04‒27
three papers chosen by
Laura Vici
Università di Bologna

  1. ‘Tourism: The Great Patient of Coronavirus COVID-2019’ By Folinas, Sotiris; Metaxas, Theodore
  2. The sustainability of tourism: global comparative evidence By Simplice A. Asongu; Nicholas M. Odhiambo
  3. Nationalism, national tourism organizations, and promotion to international markets: A multimodal analysis of nationalism in Balkan national tourism organization websites By Houliston, Linda; Ivanov, Stanislav Hristov; Webster, Craig

  1. By: Folinas, Sotiris; Metaxas, Theodore
    Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which an epidemic such as 2019-nCoV can affect the global tourism industry and the recording of the first estimates of the damage to world tourism. Countries such as China, where the epidemic began, but also Italy, where new cases are constantly being reported, are no longer tourist destinations. Potential tourists tend to postpone or cancel their plans for a destination that is plagued by a pandemic, especially when its main features are scarce of effective antivirus drugs and vaccines, the rapid spread of the virus and the damage that can cause to health (Reisinger & Mavondo, 2005). In cases of pandemics, tourists cancel their travels avoiding suspect places and people (Nicholl, 2006). Such kinds of pandemics affect directly industries such as tourism and retail service sector (Lee & McKibbin, 2004). The economic consequences of this outbreak will be serious and they will cause damages not only to the tourist destinations with an important concentration of cases but also at a global level. A similar case is the outbreak of SARS in 2002 (Chou et al, 2003; Siu & Wong, 2003; Wen, 2003). Tourism is currently –March 2020- one of the most affected sectors and the World Tourism Organization has revised its 2020 forecast for international arrivals and receipts, though it emphasizes that such predictions are likely to be further revised (UNWTO, 2020). The United Nations specialized agency for tourism expects that international tourist arrivals will be down by 20% to 30% in 2020 when compared with 2019 figures. An expected fall of between 20-30% could translate into a decline in international tourism receipts (exports) of between US$300-450 billion, almost one-third of the US$ 1.5 trillion generated in 2019. Taking into account past market trends, this would mean that between five and seven years’ worth of growth will be lost to COVID-19 (UNWTO, 2020).
    Keywords: Coronavirus COVID-2019, Tourism, Economic Impact.
    JEL: L83
    Date: 2020–03–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:99666&r=all
  2. By: Simplice A. Asongu (Yaounde, Cameroon); Nicholas M. Odhiambo (Pretoria, South Africa)
    Abstract: This study investigated the sustainability of global tourism in 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. Given the richness of the dataset, the data has been decomposed into 11 fundamental characteristics based on income levels, legal origins and openness to the sea. The empirical evidence was based on Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). Three main hypotheses were tested from which three broad findings were established. First, Hypothesis 1 is overwhelmingly valid because persistence in tourist arrivals is consistently an increasing function of income levels. Hypothesis 2 is not valid because French civil law countries are associated with comparatively higher levels of persistence in tourist arrivals. Hypothesis 3 is invalid because landlocked countries reflect higher levels of tourism persistence.
    Keywords: Tourism Sustainability, Income Level, Generalised Method of Moments (GMM)
    JEL: D74 Z32 Z38
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abh:wpaper:19/094&r=all
  3. By: Houliston, Linda; Ivanov, Stanislav Hristov (Varna University of Management); Webster, Craig
    Abstract: This paper investigates the official tourism websites for the Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey to learn about its depiction of the nation for an international tourism market. The research combines Pauwels’ (2012) multimodal discourse analysis method designed for cultural websites with Smith’s (1998) six main institutional dimensions to seek out potential nationalistic patterns involving the state, territory, language, religion, history, and rites and ceremonies. The findings mostly involve verbal and visual signifiers that have a historical context to them such as antiquity, communism, Yugoslavia, religion, irredentism, the Ottoman Empire, and national identity. The findings illustrate that official websites, while being sensitive not to alienate international tourists, portray a sense of nationalism but do so in a different way, based upon the historical experiences and unique features of each country surveyed.
    Date: 2020–04–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:px8ak&r=all

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