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Attracting tourists to Indonesia: how SEZs and visa-free policies influence international arrivals
Indonesia is one of the tourism destination countries in the world. The Indonesian government should minimize the risk of tourism activities at high-risk tourist attractions. In the digital era, efforts to optimize tourist protection can be made with artificial intelligence. This study aims to study tourist protection regulations in high-risk tourist areas in Indonesia and compare tourist protection regulations developed by other countries such as the United States of America, Japan, India, and Thailand. This research uses empirical legal legal research, combining normative legal elements with additional empirical data or elements. The results of this research show that there are traveler protection regulations in Indonesia, but their implementation still needs to be improved. Indonesia needs to learn from other countries, such as the United States of America, Japan, India, and Thailand, which have used international standards and implemented Artificial Intelligence. Through the recommended models for using Artificial Intelligence by researchers, it is hoped that they will be able to optimize the protection of tourists at high-risk tourist attractions.
Over the past few decades, special economic zones (SEZs) have become a widely used industrial policy tool to support structural transformation and economic development. Yet their impact on the economy remains inconclusive, especially in developing countries where the lack of data presents a challenge. This study examines the potentially causal effect of SEZs on the economy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic using harmonized nightlight satellite data as a proxy for annual economic activity in 148 districts from 1992 to 2021. Using counterfactual estimators for causal inference with time-series, cross-sectional data, SEZ establishment appears to result in a statistically significant increase in the economic activity of the host districts. Heterogeneity tests show that (i) SEZs in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic seem to have had a greater impact on economic activity after 2010, coinciding with the establishment of dedicated SEZ agencies; and (ii) industrial zones appear to have a higher impact than tourism zones.
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been implemented in Indonesia to promote economic development and attract foreign investment. In economic literature, there is still debate, as the available literature still needs to provide a clear conclusion on how place-based policies such as SEZs can affect well-being. The synthetic control method is employed in this study to examine the impact of SEZs on poverty rates at both the district and city levels using data from 2005 to 2021. By delving into the relationship between SEZs and poverty, this study seeks to shed light on the effectiveness of SEZs in addressing poverty in local communities. It compares it with the counterfactual district/city, a synthetic of districts/cities that do not have SEZs in their region. The results of this study found that of the eight districts/cities that have SEZs, the existence of SEZs has a varying impact on poverty levels, with an increase in poverty in four districts/cities and a decrease in poverty in the other four districts/cities, the study also reveals the complexity of the social impacts of place-based policies like SEZs.
Article History Tourism has been the fastest-growing sector in the world over the last decade, contributes to employment opportunities, and generates earnings in foreign currencies. Tourism intensively needs energy to promote tourist activities, which in turn causes economic growth. However, as almost all tourist activities, like hotel accommodations and transportation, strongly depend on energy use, it may contribute to increased energy consumption. Our study explores the impact of tourism on energy consumption in the BRICS (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) by using the panel data set of 1995-2014. In this study, feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) and Panel corrected standard error (PCSE) panel regression techniques are used for empirical analysis. The results reveal that tourism has a positive and significant impact on energy consumption. Our findings are robust and unaffected by the use of various energy consumption proxies and econometric techniques. Furthermore, our findings are robust and significant due to the inclusion of various controls such as financial development, gross fixed capital formation, total population, and gross domestic product. The policy implication is that governments should promote the tourism sector as a way to boost the growth of their economies. Sustainable tourism can help these economies achieve sustainable development. Contribution/Originality: This study examines the impact of tourism on energy consumption. There are three proxies for energy consumption: primary energy intensity (Energy intensity level of primary energy (MJ/$2011 PPP GDP), energy use (kg of oil equivalent per capita), and electricity consumption (kwh per capita), which have not been used in previous studies on the BRICS.
Special economic zone (SEZ) is one of the economic policies of Government of Indonesia (GoI) to boost economic growth of country. One of the economic sectors which is put as platform of SEZ is the coastal and marine tourism. This paper aims to assess the sustainability of Coastal Tour-ism SEZ with the case of Tanjung Lesung Coastal Area. We modify Casagrandi-Rinaldi-Lacitignola (CRL Model) by incorporating community model as importance factors as well as tourists, capital, and environmental models. The results show that by incorporating community in the development scenario will increase the sustainability of tourism in the Tanjung Lesung SEZ where income, environmental factors and attractiveness of the tourism are increasing during the simulation period.
This article aims to identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the perception of the risk of travel and travel behaviour by Poles. The study was conducted using the survey method and the CAWI technique and was carried out in January 2021. The final research sample consisted of 509 respondents. Tourism has always been exposed to various threats: natural disasters, terrorism, etc. In such cases, tourists choose a different, safe direction. However, in 2020, tourism found itself facing a crisis that brought it to a complete stop worldwide. The spread of the COVID-19 virus and safety concerns, as well as global travel restrictions, led to a change in travel during this time. The results show that the respondents resigned especially from going abroad for security reasons, choosing to rather stay in the country and other places that, from their point of view, were safer places to rest.
The local community of Kuta Mandalika Village is required to adapt to the regional tourism industry as the spearhead of tourism operations in the Special Economic Zone for Tourism in West Nusa Tenggara. As a result, researchers aim to see how prepared the residents of Kuta Mandalika Village are to welcome tourism to their village. The cognitive, emotional, and conative components all play a role in community readiness. The community at Kuta Mandalika Village was studied using a qualitative research method. In-depth interviews and a non-probability sample strategy were used to identify relevant informants in this study. For the first phase, snowball sampling was chosen as the data collection strategy. According to the findings, the community of Kuta Mandalika Village are well prepared to host tourism activities in the Mandalika Special Economic Zone. However, they are not yet prepared to participate in the tourism industry. The village is in the process of transitioning to a tourism-based society. The phenomena of rapid tourist development pushe the community as hosts, who are directly affected by tourism, to prepare themselves in an indirect way. The government, academics, and the private sector all have a role to play in helping to develop the surrounding community in terms of the capital and skills that the industry requires.
This study examines the interplay of air connectivity, sports events, infrastructures, and fiscal support during the period 2017 and 2022 in a designated area called Special Economic Zone in Mandalika, Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara to boost tourism development in Indonesia by utilizing big data cognitive analytics. We examine the tourism development impacted by the MotoGP event in 2022 and air connectivity. Further, this paper discusses the network connectivity of flights at Zainuddin Abdul Madjid International Airport during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the new normal. We found that the combination of an international airport, globally recognized sports events, and government support has directly and positively improved the tourism industry’s performance in the country and especially within Lombok Island. We suggest policy recommendations to support economic activities in Mandalika’s Special Economic Zone and its hinterland to maintain business sustainability and utilize the existing infrastructures at the optimum level. Lessons learned from the Indonesian experience could help other developing countries that are devising policies and strategies to develop the tourism industry by employing proper instruments such as infrastructure, events, and fiscal policies.
The Government of Indonesia has implemented halal tourism strategies to attract tourists from Muslim countries since 2013. The number of tourist arrivals from Muslim countries has been growing since then, and so has that of non-Muslim countries. This study uses an augmented gravity model for bilateral tourism flows to examine the effect of halal tourism policy on the number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia. The results provide statistical evidence that halal tourism policy is effective and quite powerful in attracting foreign tourist arrivals. It increases tourist arrivals from both Muslim and non-Muslim countries by 21%. Furthermore, our findings suggest important implication for policy makers in designing tourism strategies.
Motivation that enhances tourists’ behaviour to visit tourism destinations can be investigated by using the Push–pull factor approach. This study investigates the push and pulls factors and challenges facing visitation to Oluminrin waterfalls, Nigeria. It achieves its objective using data obtained using a structured questionnaire for150 tourists at the site, and the data are analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21. The results show that the tourists are attracted to the site mainly because of pull factors, such as rock climbing and waterfall inherent in the site, while the push factors attracting the tourists include socialisation and escape from work. Also, the major challenge faced by the tourists is distance between the location and their residence, making it difficult to be accessible. The study recommends the need for the management of the tourist centres to improve these pull factors, such as heritage/culture, city enclave, comfort/relaxation, beach resort, outdoor resources, rural and inexpensive /budget and challenges faced by the tourists to meet due to push factors, such as cultural experiences, escape, re-experiencing family, sports, and prestige.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced tourism practitioners to create efficient strategies to attract travelers. Using three theoretical frameworks, such as tourist trust (political, destination, and interactional trust), travel constraint (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and “social distancing” structural constraint), and extended theory of planned behavior (travel attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, perceived health risk, past travel experience), we develop a comprehensive framework to explain the impact of travel promoting, restricting, and attitudinal factors on travel decision during and after the pandemic. Data was obtained through an extensive survey conducted on 1451 Korean travelers and was analyzed using probabilistic choice models and count models. The results show the specific factors that determine travel decisions during the pandemic (whether to travel and frequency) and travel intention after the pandemic. This study provides important theoretical and practical insights into how to develop successful COVID-19 recovery strategies in the tourism industry.
The concept of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being adopted by Government is a positive move towards economic development. SEZs are areas granted special privileges in a country specifically for economic development through foreign business persons to invest into that country. The privileges include special investment policies such as tax easing, financial support and issuance of work permits and special support in infrastructure. Major businesses which usually fall under SEZs are manufacturing, agriculture, commerce, tourism. If implemented accordingly, they assist in employment creation and economic development. There is need to ensure that laws and regulations which address issues of gender, working conditions, human rights and security are well expounded and put into place to avoid their failure. It should be noted that creation of SEZs should not be viewed as a substitute for the country's large trade and investments reforms as these may lead to total failure of trade policy.
This paper aims to analyze the design and implementation of the policy to develop tourism special economic zones (TSEZs) in Indonesia with special reference to Mandalika and Tanjung Kelayang. Using descriptive analysis, it is revealed that these TSEZs have not attracted many investors yet. The policy design to promote the two TSEZs is unattractive, unclear, and at odds with the characteristics of the tourism sector. Furthermore, the implementing institutions have insufficient capacity and professionalism to implement the policy. Various critical actions are necessary to take. First, accelerating the provision of infrastructure. Second, clarifying several regulations to be in compliance with the characteristics of the tourism sector. Third, improving the capacity of the implementing institutions to manage the TSEZs. Fourth, encouraging both TSEZ Managements to collaborate.
This paper considers generalized least squares (GLS) estimation for linear panel data models. By estimating the large error covariance matrix consistently, the proposed feasible GLS estimator is more efficient than the ordinary least squares in the presence of heteroskedasticity, serial and cross-sectional correlations. The covariance matrix used for the feasible GLS is estimated via the banding and thresholding method. We establish the limiting distribution of the proposed estimator. A Monte Carlo study is considered. The proposed method is applied to an empirical application.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is currently spreading across the world at an alarming rate, resulting in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Amidst this crisis, tourism scholars are directing their attention to communities at tourist destinations, looking at their safety and well-being and the costs that they will bear due to the cessation of tourism activity. This article describes residents' perceptions of the risks posed by tourism activity, and estimates their willingness to pay to reduce public health risks based on hypothetical scenarios, using the triple-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. The social costs in three urban destinations are assessed and compared. Based on the findings, suggestions are made for appropriate post-pandemic recovery actions by local authorities and tourism organizations.
(Full paper can be downloaded from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738320301389)
This paper discusses the implementation of free visa policy in Indonesia from a neorealist perspective. By utilizing the perspective of interdependence sovereignty and domestic sovereignty, this paper critically assesses the implementation of the free visa policy in Indonesia. From the interdependence sovereignty perspective, which elaborates the economic benefits, reciprocal and security approaches the paper finds that the free visa policy in Indonesia has yet to formulate a rational and objective policy that would lead to potential security – order threat. On the other hand, from the domestic sovereignty perspective the paper finds that although the state performs its immigration control capabilities effectively, however the said immigration control measures are implemented at a rather repressive level, instead of at the ideal prevention level. In the end, the paper suggests further research that fills the gap from findings on the specific methods to enhance the state’s capability in managing challenges posed by the free visa policy in more detail, as well as providing a method to measure public perception on the performance of immigration control.
Disease outbreaks and pandemics have long played a role in societal and economic change. However, the nature of such change is selective, meaning that it is sometimes minimal and, at other times, and change or transformation may be unexpected, potentially even reinforcing contemporary paradigms. A comprehensive overview of pandemics and their effects is provided. This is used to help contextualise the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on tourism and government, industry and consumer response. Drawing on the available literature, factors that will affect tourism and destination recovery are then identified. Some measures will continue or even expand present growth orientations in tourism while others may contribute to sustainability. It is concluded that that the selective nature of the effects of COVID-19 and the measures to contain it may lead to reorientation of tourism in some cases, but in others will contribute to policies reflecting the selfish nationalismof some countries. However, the response to planetary limits and sustainable tourism requires a global approach. Despite clear evidence of this necessity, the possibility for a comprehensive transformation of the tourism system remains extremely limited without a fundamental transformation of the entire planet.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is challenging the world. With no vaccine and limited medical capacity to treat the disease, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are the main strategy to contain the pandemic. Unprecedented global travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders are causing the most severe disruption of the global economy since World War II. With international travel bans affecting over 90% of the world population and wide-spread restrictions on public gatherings and community mobility, tourism largely ceased in March 2020. Early evidence on impacts on air travel, cruises, and accommodations have been devastating. While highly uncertain, early projections from UNWTO for 2020 suggest international arrivals could decline by 20 to 30% relative to 2019. Tourism is especially susceptible to measures to counteract pandemics because of restricted mobility and social distancing. The paper compares the impacts of COVID-19 to previous epidemic/pandemics and other types of global crises and explores how the pandemic may change society, the economy, and tourism. It discusses why COVID-19 is an analogue to the ongoing climate crisis, and why there is a need to question the volume growth tourism model advocated by UNWTO, ICAO, CLIA, WTTC and other tourism organizations.
Tourism is considered as big industry which growing up faster compare to other industry in this recent year. It is reported that Indonesia received approximately 11.5 million of international tourists in 2016. Because the tourism shows significant trend in Indonesia and getting strong position in the third rank as the foreign revenue for this country, the government willing to boost up the factors that might contribute more on attracting international tourist. This study tried to analyse the determinant factors of international tourist in Indonesia by using Random Effect Model. The variables are GDPs origin and destination country, exchange rate of origin country, free visa impact and length of distance in Indonesia during the period of 2006 to 2016. The study found that all variables are statistically significant. GDPs origin and destination country and country with visa-free entry have positive effect to the number of international tourist arrival while the rest which is exchange rate of origin country and length of distance have negative effect to the international tourists. Hence, the government needs to promote aggressively to the international tourist by conducting important events, increasing the number of countries that receive Indonesia free visa and maintain the GDP in both origin and destination country.
This study presents a three-pillared analytical framework for the success factors and development outcomes of special economic zones (SEZs). The core argument is that countries that adopt a well-structured approach towards SEZs that they can align with the broader development strategy, executive effectively, and continuously evaluate and manoeuvre over time, are more successful in achieving SEZ-led economic transformation than others. This requires strategic bureaucratic competencies to make the right choices and set clear strategic directions; strategic bureaucratic learning to dynamically and interactively engage in adjusting the strategies when needed; and strategic bureaucratic strengths to implement the strategy effectively. These elements in turn need an effective political leadership with a strong development focus that can energise and motivate bureaucracies. The study revisits the experience of successful, not-so-successful and least successful countries across the globe within this framework and concludes by raising some pertinent concerns about SEZ-led development strategy that emerge from the analysis.
To secure Indonesian borders and uphold state’s sovereignty, the Directorate General of Immigration (Imigrasi) must develop an effective monitoring strategy. Managing people’s mobility within the Indonesian territory should also be the main concern of the current government amidst the implementation of the visa waiver policy. This means that the economic benefit expected from the freevisa policy must not undermine the national security. In particular, this study argues that the visa exemption policy is not related to the rise of immigration violations and, therefore, the level of immigration offense is influenced by other factors including poor management and scrutiny of foreign arrivals. This paper will analyse secondary data to deeply understand what challenges faced by Imigrasi
during the implementation of President Regulation No. 21 of 2016 about the visa waiver for 169 countries. The data was originally obtained through interviews, surveys, research, and reports published by academic researchers or government/non-government agencies. This method is utilised as a means to gather all relevant information related to the topic discussion, especially, in finding the urgency for reform and adjusting Imigrasi’s policy direction. The result conveys that visa exemption regulation needs
to be reviewed immediately.
The increased growth and commercialization of adventure tourism led to a number of changes in the profile of the individuals who now engage in adventure activities. As a result, previous understandings of adventure tourism motivations may no longer be valid. This study seeks to investigate the influence of these changes by analyzing the motivations of tourists who have engaged in adventure tourism across a range of commercial adventure activities. This is done through data collected from participants in adventure tourism, throughout South Africa, using a push and pull factor approach to motivations. The results show the increasing influence of the experiences with nature in motivations, particularly in the context of pull factors. The role of risk and thrill in motivations, which has been emphasized in previous literature, is found to be relatively minimal among these respondents. Furthermore, adventure tourism experiences are found to be dynamic, with an increasing number of significant factors influencing decision-making. It also demonstrates notable differences in the motivations of participants, based on the type of activity in which they engage.
With remarkable significance in migration prediction, global disease mitigation, urban plan and many others, an arresting challenge is to predict human mobility fluxes between any two locations. A number of methods have been proposed against the above challenge, including the intervening opportunity model, the gravity model, the radiation model, the population-weighted opportunity model, and so on. Despite their theoretical elegance, all models ignored an intuitive and important ingredient in individual decision about where to go, that is, the possible congestion on the way and the possible crowding in the destination. Here we propose a microscopic mechanism underlying mobility decisions, named destination choice game (DCG), which takes into account the crowding effects resulted from spatial interactions among individuals. In comparison with the state-of-the-art models, the present one shows more accurate prediction on mobility fluxes across wide scales from intracity trips to intercity travels, and further to internal migrations. The well-known gravity model is happen to be the equilibrium solution of a degenerated DCG neglecting the crowding effects in the destinations.
States have a general interest in facilitating the cross-border mobility of people in order to benefit from economic globalisation. Yet, mainly due to security concerns, most governments grant visa-free mobility only very selectively. Drawing on a new bilateral visa policy database covering up to 194 destination and 214 origin countries over the 1995 to 2013 period, our analysis finds that the introduction of a visa restriction by a destination country for citizens from a particular origin country deters tourism inflows by more than 20 percent. Visa restrictions also reduce bilateral trade and foreign investment, but to a smaller extent than previous studies have suggested. Exploring heterogeneity across countries, we find visa restrictions to be economically most harmful for poorer countries. We further find that some of the deterred flows in tourists, goods and services, and capital are redirected to other visa-free destinations
Tourism development in Indonesia aims to alleviate poverty, to conserve nature, environment and resources, to develop culture, to improve nation's image, and to strengthen relationship with other country. Bali as the leading tourism destination in Indonesia is able to increase welfare of its people from tourism sector, however in tourism development there are many things to be care of in order to achieve Bali tourism sustainable for the future. There are some issues arise as impact of tourism development. An issue on tourism development in Bali is it is blamed as a cause of damage in agriculture sector as the land use has significantly changes. Also, tourism also creates impacts to culture. Some efforts have been made to reduce the negative impacts of tourism, including the empowerment of local community on tourism development. This paper aims to show how local community empowerment has been made possible through tourism. The paper also gives some case studies. Empowerment of the community will become a main key for tourism development because with empowerment and involvement of the community in tourism development, the community where the tourism is developed will participate in keeping their culture and nature so that at the end the sustainable tourism development will be reached and maintain.
The book critically reflects on the unfolding relationships between tourism and distinct renderings of citizenship, with particular emphasis on the ideological and political alignments between the freedom of movement and the right to travel. The text weaves its analysis of citizenship and travel in the context of addressing large-scale societal transformations engendered by globalization, neoliberalism and the geopolitical realignments between states, as well as comprehending the internal reconfiguring of the relationship between citizens and states themselves. It focuses on: tourism and social citizenship rights; race, culture and minority rights; states, markets and the freedom of movement; tourism, peace and geo-politics; consumerism and class; and, ethical tourism, global citizenship and cosmopolitanism. The book concludes that the advancement of genuinely democratic and just forms of tourism must be commensurate with demands for distributive justice and a democratic politics of mobility encompassing all of humanity.
According to Prof. Dean MacCannell (University of California): "This book provides the first full-scale examination of the contradictory market and political forces that shape the 'freedom to travel' today. The authors conceptually map movements of international tourists, migrants, refugees, and 'illegals' onto emerging geo-political realities of hyper inequality both within and between nations, the dramatic reversal of fortune of a number of formerly 'third world' economies, terrorism, and new forms of travel restriction. They challenge axiomatic assumptions about positive psychic, cultural and economic benefits of tourism and the relationship of increasing tourism to democratization, international understanding, and world peace. A number of unpleasant facts about current global travel patterns appear all the more clearly as they are bathed in the bright light of the drive to make unrestricted international travel a universal human right.
This qualitative study explores the dynamics of tourist experiences in Indonesia, focusing on how cultural, environmental, and service-related factors shape tourist satisfaction and retention. Through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, the research uncovers insights into the perceptions of both domestic and international tourists, offering practical recommendations for enhancing tourism services in Indonesia. Tourism is one of the main drivers of Indonesia’s economy, making it essential to understand tourist perceptions to promote sustainability and growth. The paper delves into multiple aspects of tourism, from cultural engagement to service quality, analyzing how these factors interact and contribute to the overall tourist experience. The results highlight key areas for improvement in the tourism sector and offer strategies for enhancing visitors' experience in Indonesia.
Tourism has emerged as a major sector, and it is considered a significant contributor to the development of the host countries. Tourism development (TD) is believed, inter alia, to be a key promoter of export product diversification (EPD). This study explores the liaison between tourism development and export product diversification in China and across its regions (i.e., Eastern, Central, & Western) using the data for the period of 2011-2019. The Driscoll-Kraay standard errors (DKSEs) is adopted for empirical analysis along with feasible generalized least-squares (FGLS) and panel-corrected standard errors (PCSEs). The findings revealed an inverted U-shaped liaison between the TD and EPD. The estimates are robust and insensitive to econometric models, measures of tourism development, and the inclusion of other key covariates. The relationship between industrial structure, natural resource endowments, human capital, and economic growth is positive and statistically significant. The study revealed similar findings that were significant across regions. The policy insinuation is that the government should devise such policies to boost TD in order to promote EPD and sustainable development.
This article is entitled "Setting Visa-Free Policy in the Order of Increasing Visits of International Tourists to Indonesia", which aims to examine the arrangements for visiting visa-free policies in order to increase foreign tourist visits to Indonesia and find out the sanctions that can be imposed on recipients of visa-free visits who violate and misuse of a visit stay permit. In order to improve relations between the Republic of Indonesia and other countries, it is necessary to provide convenience for foreign nationals to enter the territory of the Republic of Indonesia which is carried out in the form of exemption from the obligation to have a visit visa with due observance of the principle of reciprocity and the principle of benefit. The Government of Indonesia issued Presidential Regulation Number 21 of 2016 concerning Free Visit Visas. This regulation was made in order to provide benefits to improve the economy in general and increase the number of foreign tourist visits in particular. The research method used in this study is a normative legal research method through a statutory approach. The discussion is directed at the implications of applying the visa-free policy from an employment perspective and how the government will handle it. The visit visa-free policy is regulated in Presidential Regulation Number 21 of 2016 concerning Visit Visa-free and Regulation of the Minister of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia Number 17 of 2016.
Tourism demand and its determining factors have been extensively explored over the past decades. Traditionally, the study of tourism demand modeling had focused on the use of time series models and forecasting. Nonetheless, during the last years the literature has revived the approach of gravity models, centered on structural dimension as opposed to dynamic factors. This survey aims to provide a useful overview and detailed information that discipline the existing literature and help future researchers about this field. To do so, this study reviews 143 key published papers that apply a gravity equation framework to tourism demand revealing that it has been used mainly in the context of bilateral tourist movements. Results show how, although the list of determining variables of tourist flows can be very large, GDP, population and distance are the most preponderant ones. Moreover, there are important challenges to be addressed by researchers in terms of empirical application of structural gravity models to tourism.
Purpose: In this study, as part of an attempt to foster sustainable development, the aim is directed at understanding the perspectives of domestic economic, financial, and political risks in tourism development. On the other hand, the role of other agents of sustainable development: innovation, infrastructure, health and primary education, and global crisis in tourism development were illustrated.
Design/methodology/approach: To achieve this objective, the current study explored the (system) SYS-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique for a panel of selected 73 economies over the period 2006-2017. This GMM approached is not undertaken without first establishing the stationarity (a preliminary test) of the employed dataset by utilizing the relevant unit root techniques.
Findings: First, the study found that minimizing risks from economic, financial, and political aspects is significant and vital to the attractiveness of the tourism destinations and the eventual development of the tourism sector. Second, the study present innovation or technological readiness, and health and primary education as agents of sustainable development through the growth of international tourism arrivals while global crisis is significantly detrimental to tourism inflow.
Originality/value: Overall, the study presents that the contribution of tourism as a pathway to sustainable development from a unique dimension. Investigating a large panel (of 73 countries) is a unique approach. In addition, considering the economic vulnerability of the panel countries from the aspects of risk arising from economic, financial and political aspects is another interesting dimension to the novelty of the study. Thus, this study offers relevant policies for tourism stakeholders.
Keyword: Tourism; Economic risk; Financial risk; Political risk; Global insight.
Theories on destination management, destination leadership and destination governance have made noteworthy contributions to the advancement of tourism research. However, current global dynamics in regards to political, social, technological and economic developments demand a revision of traditional methods and instruments of destination development. This paper suggests perspectives rooted in design and design thinking as a source for gaining fresh understandings of challenges in tourism destinations and for offering innovative solutions. This paper reflects on the possibility of integrating design approaches into the theorising on and practice of destination development. It explores how a transdisciplinary fusion of notions can ultimately result in a new vision for destination development.
Purpose
One of the main factors that can impact the cost of holidays to a particular destination is the exchange rate; exchange rate fluctuations impact the overall price of the holiday and should be expected to effect tourism demand. This paper aims to scrutinize the volatility of the real effective exchange rate between the source market relative to the holiday destination and tourism demand volatility, where the influence of disaggregated data is noted.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses multivariate conditional volatility regressions to simulate the time-varying conditional variances of international visitor demand and exchange rates for the relatively mature Caribbean tourist destination of Barbados. Data on the country’s main source markets, the UK, the USA and Canada is used, where the decision to disaggregate the analysis by market allows the authors to contribute to policymaking, particularly the future of tourism marketing.
Findings
The volatility models used in the paper suggests that shocks to total arrivals, as well as the USA and UK markets tend to die out relatively quickly. Asymmetric effects were observed for total arrivals, mainly due to the combination of the different source markets and potential evidence of Butler’s (1980) concept of a tourist area’s cycle of growth. The results also highlight the significance of using disaggregated tourism demand models to simulate volatility, as aggregated models do not adequately capture source market specific shocks, due to the potential model misspecification. Exchange rate volatility is postulated to have resulted in the greater utilization of packaged tours in some markets, while the effects of the market’s online presence moderates the impact of exchange rate volatility on tourist arrivals. Markets should also explore the potential of attracting higher numbers of older tourist, as this group may have higher disposable incomes, thereby mitigating the influence of exchange rate volatility.
Research limitations/implications
Some of the explanatory variables were not available on a high enough frequency and proxies had to be used. However, the approach used was consistent with other papers in the literature.
Practical implications
The results from the paper suggest that the effects of exchange rate volatility in key source markets were offset by non-price factors in some markets and the existence of the exchange rate peg in others. In particular, the online presence of the destination was one of those non-price factors highlighted as being important.
Originality/value
In most theoretical models of tourism demand, disaggregation is not normally considered a significant aspect of the model. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the impact real effective exchange rate volatility has on tourism demand at a disaggregated source country level. The approach highlights the importance of modeling tourism demand at a disaggregated level and provides important perspective from a mature small island destination.
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2019–2020 has the potential to transform the tourism industry as well as the context in which it operates. This global crisis in which travel, tourism, hospitality and events have been shut down in many parts of the world, provides an opportunity to uncover the possibilities in this historic transformative moment. A critical tourism analysis of these events briefly uncovers the ways in which tourism has supported neoliberal injustices and exploitation. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis may offer a rare and invaluable opportunity to rethink and reset tourism toward a better pathway for the future. ‘Responsible’ approaches to tourism alone, however, will not offer sufficient capacity to enable such a reset. Instead, such a vision requires a community-centred tourism framework that redefines and reorients tourism based on the rights and interests of local communities and local peoples. Theoretically, such an approach includes a way tourism could be ‘socialised’ by being recentred on the public good. This is essential for tourism to be made accountable to social and ecological limits of the planet.
This study aims to shed some light on the causal link between bank credit supply and economic growth in Turkey for the banks with the different ownership structures between 1993Q4 and 2017Q3. Wavelet coherence test is used to obtain this objective and to answer the following questions: (i) does bank credit supply lead to economic growth in Turkey and vice versa, and (ii) does the bank ownership matters in this linkage? The findings from wavelet coherence reveal that between 1993 and 2003 in the short and medium term, economic growth leads credit supply but in the long run there is feedback causality between credit supply and economic growth for only public and private banks. However, in the long-run between 1993 and 2003 economic growth leads credit supply in the foreign banks in Turkey. Between 2004 and 2017, there is feedback causality between credit supply and economic growth. Moreover, our findings suggest that bank ownership affects the strength of the linkage between credit supply and economic growth in Turkey especially in the short and medium terms. More specially, within the three types of bank ownership, the findings imply that the strongest correlation among the variables is for the private banks while the weakest one is for foreign banks.
The paper aims to critically review past and emerging literature to help professionals and researchers alike to better understand, manage and valorize both the tourism impacts and transformational affordance of COVID-19. To achieve this, first, the paper discusses why and how the COVID-19 can be a transformational opportunity by discussing the circumstances and the questions raised by the pandemic. By doing this, the paper identifies the fundamental values, institutions and pre-assumptions that the tourism industry and academia should challenge and break through to advance and reset the research and practice frontiers. The paper continues by discussing the major impacts, behaviours and experiences that three major tourism stakeholders (namely tourism demand, supply and destination management organisations and policy makers) are experiencing during three COVID-19 stages (response, recovery and reset). This provides an overview of the type and scale of the COVID-19 tourism impacts and implications for tourism research.
Unquestionable, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is one of the most impactful events of the 21st century and has tremendous effects on tourism. While many tourism researchers worldwide are currently ‘Covid-19 research gap spotting’, we call for more deliberateness and rigor. While we agree that the coronavirus pandemic is unique and relevant to research, we argue that not all effects are worth researching or novel to us. Previous research on crises and disasters do show similar patterns and existing theories can often very well explain the current phenomena. Thus, six illustrative examples are shown how a research agenda could look like. This includes parts where theoretical explanations from tourism are missing, as well as where we think existing knowledge might be subject to a tourism paradigm-shift due to the coronavirus pandemic.
We examined the potential heterogeneous impact of implementing a series of visa exemption policies on foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia by exploiting a rich data set of monthly series of foreign tourist arrivals, by country and by port of entry between January 2014 and December 2018. This is the first study in providing empirical evidence of the heterogeneous impact of a country’s visa exemption policy across tourist’s origins and within-country destinations. Using a panel data approach, our estimates showed that while the policy increased monthly foreign tourist arrivals by 5% on average, the effect was evident for less-traditional destinations only. The policy also potentially provided a diversion effect between destinations, such that it created an adverse effect on the traditional destinations of Indonesia. Our estimates also suggest a heterogeneous impact between origins at the continent level, and an 8% higher impact per year after the policy’s introduction, which was relatively lower than has been found in other studies. The findings imply that the visa exemption policy is not a one-size-fits-all policy in attracting international tourist arrivals.
This research extends preceding academic efforts concerning the impacts of mass tourism to the socio-cultural well-being of the hosts. A total of 20 Bali islanders who have met the predetermined criteria were sampled. Results suggesting that mass tourism development not only influences the local environment, economy, and business governance but more importantly the people, culture, heritage, and traditions. Even though that mass tourism in Bali remains to offer financial opportunities and stimulating infrastructural growth, nevertheless, the opportunity costs that the tourism development of Bali has to bear is the trade-off of environmental, cultural, and social meaning to the local community.
This study examines the linear and nonlinear effects of mobile phones and internet on tourism in Africa for the period 1996–2017 using system general method of moments which accounts for cross-sectional dependence. The study shows that mobile penetration and internet usage have significant negative effects on tourism while squared mobile penetration and squared internet usage have significant positive effects. The empirical findings are consistent with a non-linear (or quadratic) relationship between mobile penetration, internet usage and tourism, where mobile penetration and internet usage have significant negative relationship with tourism only to a certain point, after which they become a boost for tourism. The causality analyses suggest the existence of uni-directional causality from mobile penetration to tourism and bidirectional causality between squared mobile penetration and tourism. Also, there is bi-directional causality between internet usage, squared internet usage, and tourism. This indicates that mobile penetration and internet usage stimulates tourism which, in turn, boosts internet usage even further in these countries.
Using a classical gravity model, this paper examines the effects of geopolitical risks on the trade flows, among 164 developing and developed countries, for the period of 1985–2013. For this purpose, we use the new index of geopolitical risks (GPR index). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper in the literature that considers the new GPR index in a gravity model. The paper implements the fixed-effects (FE), the random-effects (RE), the Hausman–Taylor (HT), and the Poisson Pseudo-maximum Likelihood estimations. The findings indicate that geopolitical risks negatively affect the trade flows. The paper also discusses the potential policy implications.
The purpose of this study is to advance the tourism demand theory by excluding simultaneous effects of exchange rates and prices in empirical models, formulating an alternative pricing modus operandi consistent with recent research in the area, and demonstrating the efficacy of the use of an industrial production index (IPI) as a proxy for income. A panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) method is employed to estimate the inbound tourism demand for Turkey. Study findings suggest that the inclusion of exchange rates and prices, as mutually exclusive components, can be misleading; the IPI is not a good proxy for income; and country-specific coefficients need to be analyzed to accurately explain determinants of tourism demand for countries in the panel.
This study identifies the determinants of international tourism in Jordan, and studying the uncertainty as one of these determinants. To do this, the study employed two approaches; Gravity model to identify the determinants of international tourism, and Panel-GARCH model to investigate the effect of uncertainty on the number of tourist arrivals to Jordan. In order to accomplish these objectives, annual time series from 2000-2014 for 22 countries were carried out. The empirical results indicate that the level of Jordanian development, infrastructure, language and familiarity with location have a positive impact on the number of tourist arrivals to Jordan. On contrast of that, cost of living, exchange rate, distance and uncertainty have negative impacts. Finally, income of importing countries and hotel capacity were found statistically significant. © 2016, Asociacion Euro-Americana de Estudios del Desarrollo. All rights reserved.
Purpose
In an environment in which there has been a reduction in consumer trust of both organizations and advertising, as well as a decrease in television advertising, word of mouth (WOM) offers a way to obtain a significant competitive advantage. WOM is especially important in the hospitality and tourism industry, whose intangible products are difficult to evaluate prior to their consumption. When WOM becomes digital, the large‐scale, anonymous, ephemeral nature of the Internet induces new ways of capturing, analyzing, interpreting, and managing the influence that one consumer may have on another. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of electronic WOM (eWOM) on a tourism destination choice, using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Further, an effort was employed to determine the effect of past travel experience on using eWOM and TPB constructs.
Design/methodology/approach
A structural equation modeling procedure was applied to the examination of the influences of eWOM on attitudes towards visiting Isfahan, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and travel intention. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilised in order to analysing the relations between these constructs and past travel experience. The research model was tested empirically using a sample of 296 inbound tourists who had experience within the online communities and travelled to Isfahan during the period of research.
Findings
Findings indicate that online WOM communications have a significant impact on attitudes toward visiting Isfahan, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention to travel. In addition, travel experience has a significant impact on using eWOM and TPB constructs.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that eWOM activity is more complex than previous research has argued. Managers should consider various eWOM facets and try to motivate tourists for participating in online travel communities and to build online travel communities with characteristics such usefulness and ease of use.
Originality/value
There has been a lot of marketing research on eWOM but none has focused on covering eWOM in tourism industry and its impact on tourism destination choice by adding new dimension of eWOM to the theory of planned behavior. This paper seeks to fill this gap.