Exploring the tourism markets’ convergence hypothesis in Italy

Pietro Pizzuto and Caterina Sciortino
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Caterina Sciortino: University of Palermo, Italy

Tourism Economics, 2021, vol. 27, issue 8, 1839-1847

Abstract: This article aims at investigating the tourism markets’ convergence hypothesis across Italy’s 20 major source markets. To reach our goal, we use monthly data of tourist arrivals and overnights over the period 2008–2018 and the time-varying factor model developed by Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009). Our findings suggest the absence of full (absolute) convergence, leading us to accept the hypothesis of club convergence. We show that the traditionally more important source markets have a tendency to persist, while Asian countries show heterogeneous behaviour. Furthermore, the relative decline in the contribution to total arrivals and overnights of several international source markets calls for a reconsideration of the promotional strategies to stimulate inbound tourism from these countries.

Keywords: convergence clubs; Italy; market segmentation; tourism markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:27:y:2021:i:8:p:1839-1847

DOI: 10.1177/1354816620940436

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