Does Tourism Development Matter for the Economic Growth of Southeast Asian Countries?

Abstract

Tourism can be a positive trigger to stimulate economic activities and growth. This study examined the relationships between domestic tourism spending, international tourism receipts and the economic growth of eight Southeast Asian countries from 1995-2018 using a Pedroni cointegration test, fully-modified OLS (FMLOS), dynamic OLS (DOLS) and Granger causality tests. The results showed a strong long-term relationship between economic growth, domestic tourism spending and international tourism receipts. Based on the results, Southeast Asian countries should increase tourism development to improve economic growth.
 Keywords: economic growth, domestic tourism, international tourism, tourism development

Economic growth, tourism, and economic policy uncertainty in the main tourist destinations (1998-2018)

“…First, tourism leads to the economic growth (TLEG) hypothesis, considering that tourism affects economic growth. Some studies validating this hypothesis are: Fahimi et al (2018) for Barbados, Cuba, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Haiti, Iceland, Malta, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago; Zhu & He (2021) for 29 provinces of China; Pegkas (2020) for Greece; Wijijayanti (2021) for eight countries in Southeast Asia; and Hristov-Stančić et al (2022) for Serbia.…”