The effects of tourism on EU regional cohesion: a comparative spatial cross-regressive assessment of economic growth and convergence by level of development

Abstract

This research explores the implications of tourism for the regional cohesion of the European Union (EU). The performance of domestic and inbound tourism is tested statistically, taking into account the regions’ level of development and both direct and spill-over effects. The study therefore addresses a subdimension of tourism economic sustainability by focussing on the distribution of its effects. Within a tourism augmented conditional convergence framework, spatial cross-regressive models are estimated using the System Generalised Method of Moments. The unbalanced panel data set mainly comes from Eurostat’s regional statistics database and covers 258 regions for the period 2000–2016. Our findings indicate that domestic tourism is a better instrument for enhancing the territorial cohesion of the EU, especially for less developed and transition regions. Inbound tourism clearly hinders the convergence of these regions and has negative direct and spill-over effects on them. Inbound tourism also acts as a drag on the economic growth of more developed neighbouring regions. Policy implications include actions to support SME competitiveness, technological development and innovation, sustainable transport and network infrastructures, training and social inclusion. These areas are thematic objectives of the EU regional policy. Particular attention should be paid to coordinating the measures implemented under them.

Keywords:

• Domestic tourism
• inbound tourism
• economic growth
• EU regional convergence
• spatial cross-regressive models
• generalised method of moments

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the rapid response and insightful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant FFI2015-65934-R (OPERA research project).

Notes on contributors

Carmen María Llorca-Rodríguez

Carmen María Llorca-Rodríguez is lecturer of the Department of International and Spanish Economics at the University of Granada. Her main research interests are in the fields of tourism, income distribution, and poverty. Faculty of Economics and Business Studies. Campus Universitario de Cartuja, s/n, 18011, Granada (Spain). Tel. [phone]. Fax: [phone]; e-mail: [email protected]

Jorge Chica-Olmo

Jorge Chica-Olmo is senior lecturer in the Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business at the University of Granada. His research interests are in the areas of spatial econometrics and geostatistics. Faculty of Economics and Business Studies. Campus Universitario de Cartuja, s/n, 18011, Granada (Spain). Tel. [phone], Fax: [phone]; e-mail: [email protected]

Amalia Cristina Casas-Jurado

Amalia Cristina Casas-Jurado is lecturer of the Department of International and Spanish Economics at the University of Granada. Her research focuses on the fields of community-based tourism, rural development and development policy. Faculty of Economics and Business Studies. Campus Universitario de Cartuja, s/n, 18011, Granada (Spain). Tel. [phone]. Fax: [phone]; e-mail: [email protected]