The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment on Employment in Tourism Industry: A Case Study of Selected Countries

The purpose of the present research is to study the effect of foreign direct investment on employment in tourism. In this regard, the effect of foreign direct investment as well as gross domestic production (GDP), tax rate, and globalization index as explanatory variables are studied on tourism employment as dependent variable using panel data econometrics through statistical data of 48 selected countries including Iran within 2009-2013. The results indicate that foreign direct investment negatively influences employment in tourism among the selected countries. Regarding tourism as a user sector and since foreign direct investment is associated with technology transfer and as many labor services may not be substituted by technology, attracting foreign investment is less than other sectors. Therefore, the professions are created by foreign investment in more attracting industries. Thus, it concluded that foreign direct investment attracts tourism sector workforce and reduces employment through creating professions in other economic sectors. It can be stated that this significant effect is maintained. Moreover, the effect of GDP and tax rate is positive; whereas, the globalization index variable is negative, which is consistent with the experimental results of previous studies.