The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries

Mediterranean countries are indispensable places of tourism with their world-famous shores, wonderful climate and impressive historical places. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between tourist arrivals and economic freedom indicators such as government integrity, tax burden,...

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Main Authors: Oğuz Öcal, Buket Altınöz, Alper Aslan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Istanbul University Press 2020-12-01
Series:İstanbul İktisat Dergisi
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/C33C2F74C321467685A6679E4C501D4D
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author Oğuz Öcal
Buket Altınöz
Alper Aslan
author_facet Oğuz Öcal
Buket Altınöz
Alper Aslan
author_sort Oğuz Öcal
collection DOAJ
description Mediterranean countries are indispensable places of tourism with their world-famous shores, wonderful climate and impressive historical places. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between tourist arrivals and economic freedom indicators such as government integrity, tax burden, government spending, business freedom and trade freedom. For this purpose, the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) method was used for a Mediterranean countries sample covering the period from 1996 to 2016. The results of causality testing showed that the tourist arrivals have a bidirectional causality relationship with each explanatory variable, while the coefficient estimates showed that an increase in economic freedom indices affected tourist arrivals negatively in Mediterranean countries. That is, economic freedoms do not mean an advantage for tourists without supportive public policies for tourism. The test results suggest that policymakers should take into account the various aspects of the tourism sector, particularly natural resources and environmental factors, while making policies that increase economic freedom in Mediterranean countries.
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spelling doaj-art-a45077afdf5d4a429a2d85456d37b09c2025-08-20T01:49:01ZengIstanbul University Pressİstanbul İktisat Dergisi2602-39542020-12-0170228730110.26650/ISTJECON2020-825490123456The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean CountriesOğuz Öcal0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4276-4821Buket Altınöz1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1408-0921Alper Aslan2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5729-7218Kayseri Üniversitesi, Kayseri, TurkiyeNişantaşı Üniversitesi, Istanbul, TurkiyeErciyes Üniversitesi, Kayseri, TurkiyeMediterranean countries are indispensable places of tourism with their world-famous shores, wonderful climate and impressive historical places. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between tourist arrivals and economic freedom indicators such as government integrity, tax burden, government spending, business freedom and trade freedom. For this purpose, the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) method was used for a Mediterranean countries sample covering the period from 1996 to 2016. The results of causality testing showed that the tourist arrivals have a bidirectional causality relationship with each explanatory variable, while the coefficient estimates showed that an increase in economic freedom indices affected tourist arrivals negatively in Mediterranean countries. That is, economic freedoms do not mean an advantage for tourists without supportive public policies for tourism. The test results suggest that policymakers should take into account the various aspects of the tourism sector, particularly natural resources and environmental factors, while making policies that increase economic freedom in Mediterranean countries.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/C33C2F74C321467685A6679E4C501D4Dtourismeconomic freedompanel varcausality
spellingShingle Oğuz Öcal
Buket Altınöz
Alper Aslan
The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries
İstanbul İktisat Dergisi
tourism
economic freedom
panel var
causality
title The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries
title_full The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries
title_fullStr The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries
title_full_unstemmed The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries
title_short The Nexus Between Economic Freedom and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from Mediterranean Countries
title_sort nexus between economic freedom and tourist arrivals evidence from mediterranean countries
topic tourism
economic freedom
panel var
causality
url https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/C33C2F74C321467685A6679E4C501D4D
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