Title: Validity of tourism-led growth hypothesis in Asia: new insight from a heterogeneous income group analysis

Authors: Anthonia T. Odeleye; Darlington Uzoma Akam; Oluwaseyi Johnson Adeyeri; Shah Syed Ale Raza

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, 23401, Nigeria ' Department of Economics, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, 23401, Nigeria ' Department of Economics, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, 23401, Nigeria ' School of Economics and Finance, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xian, 710061, China

Abstract: The paper investigates the validity of tourism-led growth hypothesis in 37 Asia economies with annual time series data spanning between 1995 and 2018. The region was disaggregated into three income groups (high-income economies, upper middle-income economies, and lower middle-income economies) respectively. In different sublets, the outcome of tourism receipts was positive and significant on economic growth for high income economies and lower middle-income economies respectively. Also, tourism expenditures appeared significant in high-income economies only. Overall, tourism-led growth hypothesis is valid in all the income classifications. Therefore, it is recommended that Asian economies across the income groups respectively should advance more policies that will stimulate sustainable economic growth. Second, policymakers in the upper middle-income countries should strengthen the link between the tourism industry and sustainable economic growth by building strong governance framework for proper accountability and remittance.

Keywords: tourism-led growth hypothesis; income group economies; cross-sectional dependence; panel causality; heterogeneity; heterogeneous income group; infrastructural development; tourism receipts; tourism expenditures; global unemployment; Asia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2022.121865

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2022 Vol.12 No.1, pp.44 - 69

Received: 13 Nov 2020
Accepted: 21 Apr 2021

Published online: 07 Apr 2022 *

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