Tourism, insularity, and remoteness: A gravity-based approach

Abstract

This study investigates the sensitivity of bilateral tourism flows to distance, relative prices, and cultural and political proximity variables, with a special focus on small island destinations, using a gravity model. We find that these flows are negatively affected by larger distances between origin and destination countries and by lower gross domestic product (GDP) in both countries. There are significant differences between our subset of islands and other nations. On the one hand, small islands have higher elasticities of demand with regard to distance and destination GDP and are at a disadvantage compared to other destinations since they are small and remote. Furthermore, they have a much higher price elasticity of demand. On the other hand, sharing a common language and a common colonial past with the origin country has a greater positive impact on tourism flows to small islands than to other countries.