What's Pushing International Tourism Expenditures?

This paper examines the socio-economic determinants that contribute to outbound tourism expenditures in countries of origin. The author finds a strict, robust, positive impact of all economic factors, such as per capita income and openness to trade, on tourism expenditure per capita, as well as on tourism expenditure per GDP. There seems to be a mutual openness to tourism as countries able to attract high inbound tourism receipts per capita also have high outbound tourism expenditures per capita. A further important finding is that people in democratic countries spend a higher share of income on travelling abroad. The results offer an encouraging suggestion that it makes sense for developing countries to invest in the tourism sector, as an increasing willingness to pay for outbound tourism goes hand in hand with an increasing per capita income.