The Roles of Income and Prices in Determining International Tourism Demand: Evidence from the Mekong Downstream Nations’ Major International Markets

ABSTRACT

There are many studies on the roles of income and prices in international tourism demand, but the scope of these studies is usually limited. They usually only look at inbound tourism to a single country or from a single country to another country. This paper examines the roles of these factors on tourism demand from major source markets (different origin countries) in the downstream Mekong region. The result of the panel data analysis from 1995 to 2019 shows that income, own price and price of substitute destinations, as well as the impact of non-economic factors, play a different role on international tourism demand in downstream Mekong countries. The research findings suggest that there are different types of tourism products (luxury goods and essential goods) and different roles between destinations (substitute destination or complementary destination) for tourists from these important markets. Furthermore, the findings form the basis for tourism development policies in the downstream Mekong country.

摘要

关于收入和价格在国际旅游需求中的作用的研究很多。然而, 这些研究的范围普遍有限, 通常只局限于单一国家的入境旅游市场, 或从一个国家入境另一国家。本文研究下列因素对湄公河下游地区主要客源市场 (不同原籍国) 旅游需求的作用。根据1995 - 2019年的面板数据分析结果, 收入, 自身定价和替代目的地价格, 以及非经济因素的影响, 对湄公河下游国家的国际旅游需求发挥不同的作用。研究结果表明, 对于来自这些重要市场的游客来说, 存在不同类型的旅游产品 (奢侈品和必需品) 。另外, 目的地 (替代目的地或互补目的地) 之间的作用亦有所不同。此外, 研究结果构成了湄公河下游国家旅游发展政策的基础。

KEYWORDS:

• International tourism demand
• different roles
• elasticity
• income and prices
• downstream mekong countries

关键词:

• 国际旅游需求
• 不同角色
• 弹性
• 收入和价格
• 湄公河下游国家

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by University of Economics and Law, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, under grant number 3-2021

Notes on contributors

Quang Hai Nguyen

Quang Hai Nguyen Associate Prof., PhD. Nguyen Hai Quang is the Head of Management Department, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Economics and Law, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He has many years working in the field of air transport, research and teaching. He also has a lot of experience in training management and consulting for travel companies. His research works focus on economic and business management issues in air transport, tourism, type and field of enterprises