Differentiation and Synergies in Rural Tourism: Estimation and Simulation of the Israeli Market

Anat Tchetchik, Aliza Fleischer () and Israel Finkelshtain ()

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2008, vol. 90, issue 2, 553-570

Abstract: This article applies a discrete-choice equilibrium model with product differentiation to study the rural tourism industry in Israel and to jointly estimate the effect of lodging and farm characteristics on consumer preferences and firms' costs. The model accounts for heterogeneity in tastes and technologies and allows for unobservable product characteristics. We find evidence for technological synergy in the joint production of agricultural goods and rural tourism services, but none in the demand. The differentiation in the industry is the major contributor to the price-cost margin, which averages 62%. An additional minor cause is government regulations, which restrict supply. Simulation results demonstrate the growth potential of the industry and show that the government can play an important role in catalyzing growth via investment subsidization, deregulation of supply and information distribution. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-8276.2007.01112.x (application/pdf)
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:oup:ajagec:v:90:y:2008:i:2:p:553-570

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Agricultural Economics is currently edited by Madhu Khanna, Brian E. Roe, James Vercammen and JunJie Wu

More articles in American Journal of Agricultural Economics from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().