Demand Elasticities for Short-Haul versus Long-Haul Tourism

Abstract

The estimation of demand elasticities in international tourism has been the subject of numerous empirical studies conducted over the last three decades. These studies have collectively analyzed a wide variety of situations. In particular, the findings span a diverse combination of origin and destination pairs representing extremes in terms of length of haul. This study integrates the empirical findings of 80 studies of international tourism demand using meta-analysis. The aim was to identify whether a systematic difference exists between long-haul and short-haul tourism. Income, price, exchange rate, transportation cost, and promotional expenditure elasticities of demand have been analyzed. In addition, underlying growth rates of long-haul tourism have been contrasted to the growth in short-haul tourism.