 Imports and tourism expansion: A general equilibrium analysisJean-Jacques Nowak and Mondher Sahli Tourism Economics, 2025, vol. 31, issue 3, 557-575 Abstract: There is an ongoing debate within the literature about whether inbound tourism in developing countries contributes positively to national welfare. Most of the existing literature primarily relies on case studies and lacks theoretical frameworks essential for a comprehensive understanding of the role of imported intermediate inputs in tourism development. We aim to fill this gap by presenting a theoretical specific-factor general-equilibrium model of a tourism-exporting economy that incorporates both imported and non-traded intermediate goods. Our findings indicate that the extensive utilization of imported intermediate goods by the tourism industry, as well as other sectors, could potentially increase residents’ real income during a tourism boom. Additionally, our analysis reveals deviations from some standard results of the “beach disease†model. Lastly, we shed light on the complexity of the consequences of tourism expansion on income distribution, which prove to be more intricate than commonly believed. This underscores the need for a deeper understanding of the multifaceted dynamics involved in analyzing the connections between imports and tourism expansion. Keywords: Dutch disease; inbound tourism; intermediate goods; leakages; general equilibrium; imports (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:31:y:2025:i:3:p:557-575 DOI: 10.1177/13548166241286228 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Tourism Economics |
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