ESTIMATING THE DETERMINANTS OF TOURIST SPENDING: A COMPARISON OF FOUR MODELS

Abstract

Although the issue of tourist spending estimation has long been of considerable interest to many researchers, there has been no consensus yet about its definition as the dependent variable. This study attempts to estimate determinants of tourist spending by utilizing a self-generated survey data and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. The distinction of this study is that it develops four different models to test the accuracy of the determinants of tourist spending and it considers not only the demand side but also the supply side. Dependent variables for different models are defined as total vacation spending (MODEL#1), daily spending per group (MODEL#2), daily spending per person (MODEL#3), and total spending per person (MODEL#4). The analysis was accomplished through the use of dummy variables such as sociodemographics and vacation-taking behavior of tourists, as suggested in the literature. All four estimation results indicated that some of the explanatory variables are consistent determinants of tourist spending, regardless of the type of models defined. Moreover, this study compares and contrasts the findings to suggest the best acceptable model for estimating the determinants of tourist spending. Both managerial and theoretical implications are also discussed.