The impact of pandemics on the tourism industry

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Καστανά, Γεωργία
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Kastana, Georgia
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2021
• Θέματα: Tourism industry; Pandemics; Tourist arrivals; Tourism expenditures; Τουριστική βιομηχανία; Πανδημίες; Τουριστικές αφίξεις; Τουριστικές δαπάνες

The relationship between pandemics and the tourism industry consists of an important issue that has been recorded in several studies. Epidemic diseases in history of humanity caused significant psychological and economical effects and tourism is one of the most affected industries by the pandemics. In this dissertation, we examine the impact of pandemics measured by a Discussion About Pandemics Index and how the pandemics affect tourist arrivals and tourism expenditures. Specifically, we examine whether diseases outbreaks affect tourist arrivals and tourism expenditures according to specific countries characteristics as well as the magnitude of these impacts on a global level. This research question is studied for 142 countries, using the GDP per capita, the Exchange Rate and Trade Openess of each country. According to the literature, these macro-economic variables influence the tourism activity, hence we use them as control variables in our analysis. Moreover, various countries characteristics are studied, such as whether they are developing or emerging economies, their income level and whether they are island and non-island economies. In order to conduct our empirical analysis, we use Panel Data for the research period 1996 to 2019 and as an econometric approach is used a panel regression. Our findings suggest that the negative effect of the pandemic index on tourist arrivals and tourism expenditures is only valid for specific groups of countries, such as high income countries and island economies.