Visa Waivers, Multilateral Resistance and International Tourism: Some Evidence from Israel

Daniel Felsenstein (), Michael Beenstock and Ziv Rubin

ERSA conference papers from European Regional Science Association

Abstract: This paper tests the visa-led tourism hypothesis (VTH) which contends that easing of visa restrictions increases international tourism. Israel acts as a natural laboratory in this case with clear before and after junctures in visa restrictions. We use panel data on tourism to Israel from 60 countries during 1994-2012. In contrast to previous work we take account of non-stationarity in the data and test for the effect of multilateral resistance on tourism. Partial waivers of visa restrictions are estimated to increase tourism by 48 percent and complete waivers increase tourism by 118 percent. Other results include the adverse effect of Israel?s security situation on tourism, the beneficial effect of real devaluation on tourism, and the fact that the elasticity of tourism to Israel with respect to tourism to all destinations is very small.

Keywords: International tourism; visa arrangements; multilateral resistance; panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-mig and nep-tur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p187

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