ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DEMAND: AN EMPIRICAL APPLICATION ON TURKEY

16883

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the main factors that determine the tourism demand to Turkey. For this aim, we employed panel data methods on turizm demand data of first- five countries which have the highest share with respect to the number of tourists coming to Turkey. The main determinants of tourism demand cited in the literature cover macroeconomic variables, such as gdp, price level, transportation and other costs, exchange rate and etc. In this study, after having carried out the pre-estimation tests (cross-sectional dependence, stationarity and co-integra-tion tests) on the panel data, the estimation results of the econometric model to determine the tour-ism demand to Turkey is discussed. We find, as expected from the literature, that transportation costs and inflation have negative effects on tourism demand, whereas exchange rate has a positive effect on tourism demand. However, per capita GDP of tourist sending country has a negative and strong effect on tourism demand. This is in contrast to findings in the literature and can be consid-ered as an indicator of a significant problem in the tourism sector in Turkey

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International Tourism Demand , Panel Data , Turkish Economy

Erciyes University Journal Of Economics an‎d Administrative Sciences

177

Erciyes University Journal Of Economics an‎d Administrative Sciences