IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/toueco/v29y2023i2p437-459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of COVID-19 on tourists’ length of stay and daily expenditures

Author

Listed:
  • José F Baños-Pino
  • David Boto-García
  • Eduardo Del Valle
  • Inés Sustacha

Abstract

This study evaluates the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourists’ length of stay and daily expenditures at a destination. The paper compares detailed microdata for visitors to a Northern Spanish region in the summer periods of 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 (after the pandemic outbreak). We estimate the pandemic-induced impacts on the length of stay and expenditures per person for several categories using regression adjustment, inverse probability weighting regression and propensity score matching. We find clear evidence of a drop in the length of stay of around 1.26 nights, representing a 23.8% decline. We also show that, although total expenditures per person and day have remained constant, there has been a change in the allocations for categories in the tourism budget.

Suggested Citation

  • José F Baños-Pino & David Boto-García & Eduardo Del Valle & Inés Sustacha, 2023. "The impact of COVID-19 on tourists’ length of stay and daily expenditures," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(2), pages 437-459, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:29:y:2023:i:2:p:437-459
    DOI: 10.1177/13548166211053419
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548166211053419
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/13548166211053419?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karl, Marion & Kock, Florian & Ritchie, Brent W. & Gauss, Jana, 2021. "Affective forecasting and travel decision-making: An investigation in times of a pandemic," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Kock, Florian & Nørfelt, Astrid & Josiassen, Alexander & Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike G., 2020. "Understanding the COVID-19 tourist psyche: The Evolutionary Tourism Paradigm," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Martin Huber, 2014. "Identifying Causal Mechanisms (Primarily) Based On Inverse Probability Weighting," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 920-943, September.
    4. Weili Ding & Steven F. Lehrer, 2010. "Estimating Treatment Effects from Contaminated Multiperiod Education Experiments: The Dynamic Impacts of Class Size Reductions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 31-42, February.
    5. So Young Bae & Po-Ju Chang, 2021. "The effect of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) risk perception on behavioural intention towards ‘untact’ tourism in South Korea during the first wave of the pandemic (March 2020)," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 1017-1035, April.
    6. Pollak, Robert A & Wales, Terence J, 1981. "Demographic Variables in Demand Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1533-1551, November.
    7. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2016. "Matching on the Estimated Propensity Score," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 781-807, March.
    8. Benjamin Faber & Cecile Gaubert, 2019. "Tourism and Economic Development: Evidence from Mexico's Coastline," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(6), pages 2245-2293, June.
    9. Buckley, Ralf & Westaway, Diane, 2020. "Mental health rescue effects of women's outdoor tourism: A role in COVID-19 recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Mora-Rivera, Jorge & Cerón-Monroy, Hazael & García-Mora, Fernando, 2019. "The impact of remittances on domestic tourism in Mexico," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 36-52.
    11. Patricio Aroca & Juan Gabriel Brida & Serena Volo, 2013. "Applying Weights to Correct Distortions in a Non-Random Sample: An Application to Chilean Tourism Time Series Data," Tourism Economics, , vol. 19(2), pages 453-472, April.
    12. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    13. Lewbel, Arthur, 2018. "Identification and estimation using heteroscedasticity without instruments: The binary endogenous regressor case," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 10-12.
    14. Zhang, Ke & Hou, Yuansi & Li, Gang, 2020. "Threat of infectious disease during an outbreak: Influence on tourists' emotional responses to disadvantaged price inequality," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. John Conlisk, 1971. "A Bit of Evidence on the Income-Education-Ability Interrelation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 6(3), pages 358-362.
    16. Lee, Choong-Ki & Song, Hak-Jun & Bendle, Lawrence J. & Kim, Myung-Ja & Han, Heesup, 2012. "The impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions for 2009 H1N1 influenza on travel intentions: A model of goal-directed behavior," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 89-99.
    17. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    18. Miao, Li & Im, Jinyoung & Fu, Xiaoxiao & Kim, Haemi & Zhang, Yi Estella, 2021. "Proximal and distal post-COVID travel behavior," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Fleischer, Aliza & Peleg, Gil & Rivlin (Byk), Judith, 2011. "The impact of changes in household vacation expenditures on the travel and hospitality industries," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 815-821.
    20. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74, pages 132-132.
    21. Sigala, Marianna, 2020. "Tourism and COVID-19: Impacts and implications for advancing and resetting industry and research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 312-321.
    22. Mao, Chi-Kuo & Ding, Cherng G. & Lee, Hsiu-Yu, 2010. "Post-SARS tourist arrival recovery patterns: An analysis based on a catastrophe theory," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 855-861.
    23. Celia Bilbao & Luis Valdés, 2016. "Evaluation of the profitability of quality labels in rural tourism accommodation: a hedonic approach using propensity score matching," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(34), pages 3253-3263, July.
    24. Tuck Cheong Tang & Koi Nyen Wong, 2009. "Research Note: The SARS Epidemic and International Visitor Arrivals to Cambodia: Is the Impact Permanent or Transitory?," Tourism Economics, , vol. 15(4), pages 883-890, December.
    25. Larissa Neuburger & Roman Egger, 2021. "Travel risk perception and travel behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020: a case study of the DACH region," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 1003-1016, April.
    26. Qiu, Richard T.R. & Park, Jinah & Li, ShiNa & Song, Haiyan, 2020. "Social costs of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    27. Brett H. Day, 2020. "The Value of Greenspace Under Pandemic Lockdown," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 1161-1185, August.
    28. Li, Junxiong & Nguyen, Thi Hong Hai & Coca-Stefaniak, J. Andres, 2021. "Coronavirus impacts on post-pandemic planned travel behaviours," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    29. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 235-267, January.
    30. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    31. Fan Li & Kari Lock Morgan & Alan M. Zaslavsky, 2018. "Balancing Covariates via Propensity Score Weighting," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(521), pages 390-400, January.
    32. Wang, Jie & Liu-Lastres, Bingjie & Ritchie, Brent W. & Mills, Deborah J., 2019. "Travellers' self-protections against health risks: An application of the full Protection Motivation Theory," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Yang & Zhang, Carol X. & Rickly, Jillian M., 2021. "A review of early COVID-19 research in tourism: Launching the Annals of Tourism Research's Curated Collection on coronavirus and tourism1," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Miao, Li & Im, Jinyoung & Fu, Xiaoxiao & Kim, Haemi & Zhang, Yi Estella, 2021. "Proximal and distal post-COVID travel behavior," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Chan, Elisa K., 2023. "Pandemic experience and locus of protection," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Chung-Wei Kuo, 2021. "Can We Return to Our Normal Life When the Pandemic Is under Control? A Preliminary Study on the Influence of COVID-19 on the Tourism Characteristics of Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, August.
    5. Yu, Ling & Zhao, Pengjun & Tang, Junqing & Pang, Liang, 2023. "Changes in tourist mobility after COVID-19 outbreaks," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. José M. Cansino & Antonio Sánchez-Braza & Nereyda Espinoza, 2018. "Evaluating the Impact of an Active Labour Market Policy on Employment: Short- and Long-Term Perspectives," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-20, April.
    7. Sariişik Mehmet & Kapucuoğlu Mustafa İnanç & Ceylan Veli, 2023. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behavior: A case study of domestic inbound travelers in Turkey," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 211-224, December.
    8. Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2010. "How to Control for Many Covariates? Reliable Estimators Based on the Propensity Score," IZA Discussion Papers 5268, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Akhter Shareef, Mahmud & Shakaib Akram, Muhammad & Tegwen Malik, F. & Kumar, Vinod & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Giannakis, Mihalis, 2023. "An attitude-behavioral model to understand people’s behavior towards tourism during COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    10. Huber, Martin, 2019. "An introduction to flexible methods for policy evaluation," FSES Working Papers 504, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    11. Zeqin Liu & Zongwu Cai & Ying Fang & Ming Lin, 2019. "Statistical Analysis and Evaluation of Macroeconomic Policies: A Selective Review," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 201904, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2019.
    12. Delius, Antonia & Sterck, Olivier, 2024. "Cash transfers and micro-enterprise performance: Theory and quasi-experimental evidence from Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2013. "The performance of estimators based on the propensity score," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 175(1), pages 1-21.
    14. Gasmi, Farid & Kouakou, Dorgyles & Noumba Um, Paul & Rojas Milla, Pedro, 2023. "An empirical analysis of the social contract in the MENA region and the role of digitalization in its transformation," TSE Working Papers 23-1423, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    15. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Song, Xiaojun, 2019. "Specification tests for the propensity score," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 210(2), pages 379-404.
    16. Marko Perić & Vanja Vitezić, 2021. "Tourism Getting Back to Life after COVID-19: Can Artificial Intelligence Help?," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, September.
    17. Tymon Słoczyński, 2015. "The Oaxaca–Blinder Unexplained Component as a Treatment Effects Estimator," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 77(4), pages 588-604, August.
    18. Fatema, Naureen, 2019. "Can land title reduce low-intensity interhousehold conflict incidences and associated damages in eastern DRC?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel & Sebastian Siegloch, 2013. "The politicians’ wage gap: insights from German members of parliament," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 653-676, September.
    20. Martin Huber & Michael Lechner & Giovanni Mellace, 2017. "Why Do Tougher Caseworkers Increase Employment? The Role of Program Assignment as a Causal Mechanism," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 180-183, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:29:y:2023:i:2:p:437-459. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.