A global perspective of the role of domestic economic, financial and political risks in inbound 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, was 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 presents 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 the contribution of tourism as a pathway to sustainable development from unique dimensions. 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.