The Economic Impact of International Students in a Regional Economy from a Tourism Perspective

Xesús Pereira López, Melchor Fernández Fernández and Andre Carrascal Incera
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Xesús Pereira López: Institute of Development Studies of Galicia (IDEGA) and Department of Quantitative Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Santiago de Compostela, Avenida do Burgo s/n, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain
Melchor Fernández Fernández: Institute of Development Studies of Galicia (IDEGA) and Department of Foundations of the Economic Analysis, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Melchor Fernandez

Tourism Economics, 2016, vol. 22, issue 1, 125-140

Abstract: This paper assesses the economic impact of international students in a regional economy (Galicia) from the viewpoint of the tourism industry. The current extent of international student mobility and its potential future development make it an appropriate topic for analysis in terms of its local and regional economic impacts, first and foremost at the academic and political levels. A methodology to facilitate the estimation of both the direct effects on the education sector and the possible ‘externalities’ on the tourism industry will enable economic evaluation of financial efforts to attract international students. Without considering the potential increase of other visitors, the results indicate that international students have less economic impact than that associated with inbound tourism and, in the case of exchange students (as a constituent group of international students), the economic contribution could even be negative for a local economy.

Keywords: international students; tourism consumption; economic impact; regional economy; input–output analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:22:y:2016:i:1:p:125-140

DOI: 10.5367/te.2014.0414

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