IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/toueco/v9y2003i1p77-93.html

A Structural View of Tourism Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Egon Smeral

    (Austrian Institute of Economic Research, PO Box 91, A-1103 Vienna, Austria; and University of Innsbruck, Institute of Management, Service Economics and Tourism, Universitätsstrasse 15, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria)

Abstract

Structural factors are important when it comes to explaining tourism growth. In this connection, crucial roles are played by structural change in demand and differentials between productivity in tourism and in manufacturing. The demand factor stimulates the rise of tourism demand and explains why tourism grows faster than the global economy as such or why the income elasticity is above 1: tourism is a luxury good, and structural change in demand is a key factor in analysing its development. Once saturation has been achieved in basic needs and durable goods, a growing economy has more money left to spend on, first, leisure and tourism services and, secondly, knowledge-based goods and services. In contrast to manufacturing, opportunities to increase productivity are limited in the tourism industry. Because there are fewer options for rationalization, tourism services become more expensive in the long term than manufactured goods or other services, and this weakens the demand-triggered growth effect. Nevertheless, in sum the demand effect is stronger than the productivity disadvantages. As a side-effect of the productivity disadvantages and the demand effect, employment grows as a share of total employment in the hotel and restaurant industry, the core segments of the tourism business.

Suggested Citation

  • Egon Smeral, 2003. "A Structural View of Tourism Growth," Tourism Economics, , vol. 9(1), pages 77-93, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:9:y:2003:i:1:p:77-93
    DOI: 10.5367/000000003101298286
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5367/000000003101298286
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5367/000000003101298286?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. Dora L. Costa, 1997. "Less of a Luxury: The Rise of Recreation since 1888," NBER Working Papers 6054, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Victor R. Fuchs, 1968. "The Service Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fuch68-1, December.
    3. repec:wbk:wbpubs:13828 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Heinz Hollenstein, 2001. "Innovation Modes in the Swiss Service Sector," WIFO Working Papers 156, WIFO.
    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. Ulrich Gunter & Egon Smeral, 2016. "The decline of tourism income elasticities in a global context," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(3), pages 466-483, June.
    2. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    3. Roger R. Betancourt, 1969. "R. A. EASTERLIN. Population, Labor Force, and Long Swings in Economic Growth: The American Experience. Pp. xx, 298. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1968. $10.00," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 384(1), pages 183-192, July.
    4. Colin Lindsay & Ronald W. McQuaid, 2004. "Avoiding the ‘McJobs’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 18(2), pages 297-319, June.
    5. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    6. Sasaki, Hiroaki, 2007. "The rise of service employment and its impact on aggregate productivity growth," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 438-459, December.
    7. L. Rachel Ngai & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 1-44, October.
    8. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew T. Young, 2003. "Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data," Working Papers 2003-03, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    9. Borgersen, Trond-Arne & King, Roswitha M., 2014. "Structural origins of debt-sustainability in mature and transition economies: Domar, Balassa–Samuelson and Maastricht," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 101-119.
    10. Ademir Rocha & Fernando Perobelli, 2020. "Spatial distribution of logistics services in Brazil: A potential market analysis," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 185-217, February.
    11. Smith, Stephen M. & Gibson, Cosette M., 1988. "Industrial Diversification In Nonmetropolitan Counties And Its Effect On Economic Stability," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 13(2), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2016. "The Evolution of Gender Gaps in Industrialized Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 405-434, October.
    13. Brigitte Preissl, 2007. "The German Service Gap Or: Re‐Organising The Manufacturing––Services Puzzle," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 457-478, July.
    14. O. Zeynep Akşin, 2007. "On valuing appreciating human assets in services," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 221-235, March.
    15. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time Over Five Decades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 969-1006.
    16. Hipp, Christiane & Grupp, Hariolf, 2005. "Innovation in the service sector: The demand for service-specific innovation measurement concepts and typologies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 517-535, May.
    17. Renbang Shan & Li Luo & Baoli Shi, 2023. "The choice of recycling strategies for decision-makers based on government subsidy and service budget," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1441-1472, February.
    18. Egon Smeral, 2006. "Teilstudie 17: Wachstums- und Beschäftigungschancen im Tourismus," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 27456.
    19. André Roncaglia De Carvalho & - André M. Marques, 2018. "Economic Development And Inflation: A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis," Anais do XLIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 44th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 41, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    20. Gundlach, Erich, 1991. "Ein einfaches Modell des Strukturwandels," Kiel Working Papers 470, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:9:y:2003:i:1:p:77-93. 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.