Tourist Spending and Race of Visitors

Abstract

This article investigates racial differences in the spending patterns of tourists. The article develops a deterministic model to explain expenditures by tourists who stay overnight at a destination. The model is then applied to survey data of tourist expenditures collected from overnight visitors to Virginia Beach during the summer of 1997. The study finds that ceteris paribus overnight visitors spend about the same regardless of their race, while the most important determinant of tourist spending is visitor income. The findings hold whether total party expenditures, party expenditures per day, or expenditures per person per day are examined.

Daily Expenses of Foreign Tourists, Length of Stay and Activities: Evidence from Spain

“…In particular, high-income tourists spend 50% more than low-income visitors, whereas this difference is only 17% when we compare middle-and low-income tourists. This result is in accordance with literature and it has already been found by Lee et al (1996), Jang et al (2004), Fish and Waggle (1996), Agarwal and Yochum (1999) and Davies and Mangan (1992), among others.…”

“…Second, there is an important amount of research that seeks to estimate expenditures per person but on a daily basis (Aguiló and Juaneda, 2000;Haukeland, 1996;Legoherel, 1998;Pol et al, 2006). Finally, there are studies that try to categorize tourists according to how much they spend in total (including companions and vacation days), which is used as a dependent variable in the model (Agarwal and Yochum, 1999;Jang et al, 2004;Kozak, 2001). The present study, as mentioned in the previous section, fits into the second type of research.…”

Economic effects of tourism and its influencing factors

“…Gender and marital status do not seem to predict spending in general (Lawson 1994;Wang et al 2006); this is reflected in the large share of non-significant results in the studies reviewed even though, for example, Mak et al (1977b) found the latter variable to be significant. In contrast, income can generally be regarded as a reliable predictor (Fish, Waggle 1996): consistent with economic theory the relationship between income level and tourism expenditure is positive in 21 out of 29 studies with Agarwal and Yochum (1999) Thrane, Farstad (2011) reporting inelastic relations. This means with growing income, tourism expenditure increases as well but at a lower rate.…”

“…hotels) is generally economically most relevant, followed by rented apartments, with campgrounds and friends/relatives generating the lowest expenditures (e.g. Agarwal, Yochum 1999;Fredman 2008;García-Sánchez et al 2013). Interestingly, Kastenholz (2007) found camping tourists to be the heaviest spenders in nature tourism destinations in Portugal, and Kozak et al (2008) reported a negative relationship between hotel accommodation and spending in Turkey, which might be explained by the sun-and-sand character of the destination.…”

Global Financial/Economic Crisis and Tourist Arrival Forecasts for Hong Kong

“…Song and Li's (2008) review is consistent with those carried out by Lim (1999), Li et al (2005) and Wang (2009). Of the aforementioned explanatory variables, tourism income is regarded as the most frequently used and the most statistically significant by Agarwal andYochum (1999), Lim (1999), Manuel and Croes (2000), Vanegas and Croes (2000), Lim and McAleer (2001), Song et al (2003) and Wang (2009). Several empirical studies, such as those carried out by Martin and Witt (1987) and Kim and Song (1998), have revealed that the travel cost variable is insignificant in certain tourism demand models.…”