Local tourism effects of HSR in small cities: three synthetic control case studies

Daniel Albalate, Javier Campos and Juan Jiménez González

Current Issues in Tourism, 2023, vol. 26, issue 14, 2301-2316

Abstract: The inauguration of high-speed rail (HSR) services is often associated with renewed expectations of revitalization of local tourism activity in sparsely populated regions. However, the empirical literature on the actual ex-post effects of this transport mode is scarce. This paper contributes to this line of research by estimating the causal impact of the HSR on the number of visitors in three small cities located in low-density areas in Spain. Our results, using the synthetic control method, robustly show that the ex-post causal effects of the HSR on overnight visitors are insignificant and, if any, they seem to exert a negative influence rather than a positive contribution. This suggests that smaller cities should be very cautious about the short-run expected impacts of transport improvements, and policy makers and planners should be aware of the actual contribution of such investments in their assessment of the net social benefits of HSR projects.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2022.2086106 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rcitxx:v:26:y:2023:i:14:p:2301-2316

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rcit20

DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2086106

Access Statistics for this article

Current Issues in Tourism is currently edited by Jennifer Tunstall

More articles in Current Issues in Tourism from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().