Global trade in cultural tourism services

The future of the global trade system faces more risk and uncertainty than at any time since it was created after World War II. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has not completed a new round of global trade liberalization in two decades. If multilateralism is in crisis, this will also have consequences on further developments in international cultural tourism. This chapter critically reviews the definition of ‘cultural tourism’ and examines the empirical literature on its determinants and impacts. This is done with reference to efficiency, price and income, along with education, as variables that can be located in the mainstream neoclassical approach. Income effects are mixed and education has the problem that it may be conflated with other preference-changing effects that are difficult to proxy in other variables. The need for better data and more comprehensive models that take account of social effects and uncertainty in a more behavioural way is emphasized.