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Forecasting travellers in Spain with Google’s search volume indices

Author

Listed:
  • Maximo Camacho

    (Universidad de Murcia and BBVA, Spain)

  • Matías José Pacce

    (BBVA Research, Spain)

Abstract

We examine whether Google’s search volume indices help economic agents with real-time predictions about the checked-in and overnight stays of travellers in Spain. Using a dynamic factor approach and a real-time database of vintages that reproduces the exact information that was available to a forecaster at each particular point in time, we show that the models, including Google’s query volume indices, outperform models that exclude these leading indicators. In this way, we are the first in finding conclusive evidence that tourism-related queries help to improve tourism forecast in Spain. Our finding is of significance in this literature, since Spain is one of the world’s top tourism destinations and extremely depends on tourism.

Suggested Citation

  • Maximo Camacho & Matías José Pacce, 2018. "Forecasting travellers in Spain with Google’s search volume indices," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(4), pages 434-448, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:24:y:2018:i:4:p:434-448
    DOI: 10.1177/1354816617737227
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Diego Bodas & Juan R. García López & Tomasa Rodrigo López & Pep Ruiz de Aguirre & Camilo A. Ulloa & Juan Murillo Arias & Juan de Dios Romero Palop & Heribert Valero Lapaz & Matías J. Pacce, 2019. "Measuring retail trade using card transactional data," Working Papers 1921, Banco de España.
    2. Joaquín Artés & Ana Melissa Botello Mainieri & A. Jesús Sánchez-Fuentes, 2019. "Tax reforms and Google searches: the case of Spanish VAT reforms during the great recession," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 321-336, November.
    3. Marta Crispino & Vincenzo Mariani, 2025. "A Tool to Nowcast Tourist Overnight Stays with Payment Data and Complementary Indicators," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 11(1), pages 285-312, March.
    4. Ulrich Gunter & Irem Önder & Stefan Gindl, 2019. "Exploring the predictive ability of LIKES of posts on the Facebook pages of four major city DMOs in Austria," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(3), pages 375-401, May.
    5. Katerina Volchek & Anyu Liu & Haiyan Song & Dimitrios Buhalis, 2019. "Forecasting tourist arrivals at attractions: Search engine empowered methodologies," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(3), pages 425-447, May.
    6. Umberto Minora & Stefano Maria Iacus & Filipe Batista e Silva & Francesco Sermi & Spyridon Spyratos, 2023. "Nowcasting tourist nights spent using innovative human mobility data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Jianxin Zhang & Yuting Yan & Jinyue Zhang & Peixue Liu & Li Ma, 2023. "Investigating the Spatial-Temporal Variation of Pre-Trip Searching in an Urban Agglomeration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-17, July.
    8. Ilsé Botha & Andrea Saayman, 2024. "Does Google Analytics Improve the Prediction of Tourism Demand Recovery?," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Tomas Havranek & Ayaz Zeynalov, 2021. "Forecasting tourist arrivals: Google Trends meets mixed-frequency data," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(1), pages 129-148, February.
    10. Gang Xie & Xin Li & Yatong Qian & Shouyang Wang, 2021. "Forecasting tourism demand with KPCA-based web search indexes," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(4), pages 721-743, June.
    11. van der Wielen, Wouter & Barrios, Salvador, 2021. "Economic sentiment during the COVID pandemic: Evidence from search behaviour in the EU," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    12. Ahmed Shoukry Rashad, 2022. "The Power of Travel Search Data in Forecasting the Tourism Demand in Dubai," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-11, July.
    13. Alan Duncan & Abebe Hailemariam, 2025. "Come and say G’day: Using search engine data to understand the dynamics of tourism demand in Australia," Tourism Economics, , vol. 31(7), pages 1428-1451, November.
    14. García, Juan R. & Pacce, Matías & Rodrigo, Tomasa & Ruiz de Aguirre, Pep & Ulloa, Camilo A., 2021. "Measuring and forecasting retail trade in real time using card transactional data," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1235-1246.

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