Tourism and economic growth: the case of the five ASEAN countries
Date
2013-10
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Abstract
For many national governments, the tourism industry is seen as an important contributor to
economic development. The industry is expected to provide job opportunities, reduce
poverty, earn foreign exchange, and stimulate economic growth and progress in general.
Although tourism is touted to play such a role, some economists remain skeptical about the
significance of its impact on economic growth and development. Accordingly, studies ofthe
relationship between tourism and economic growth have not been lacking; economists still
continue to disagree on the real benefits of tourism to the economy. Hoping to contribute to
this ongoing discussion, our paper aims to find out whether or not tourism exerts a positive
impact on economic growth by looking into the experiences of five ASEAN developing
countries, namely, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. We want to
address the question: are governments correct in investing so much in an industry whose
contribution to growth still seems open to inquiry? We employ fixed effect panel data
estimation to answer this question. The results of our analysis provide supporting evidence
that tourism has a positive and significant impact on economic growth using data on the five
ASEAN countries covered in this study.
Description
Keywords
Tourism, Economic growth, ASEAN