The impact of COVID-19 on tourism, employment, and population of the Azores islands

Karina Simone Sass, Raquel Ferreira Maciel and Tomaz Ponce Dentinho ()
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Karina Simone Sass: Universidade dos Acores Centro de Estudos de Economia Aplicada do Atlântico
Raquel Ferreira Maciel: Universidade dos Acores Centro de Estudos de Economia Aplicada do Atlântico
Tomaz Ponce Dentinho: Universidade dos Acores Centro de Estudos de Economia Aplicada do Atlântico

Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, 2023, vol. 16, issue 1, No 42, 12 pages

Abstract: Abstract Tourism is a very important economic sector and, for many regions, the main economic activity. Tourism was one of the main sectors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on tourism, employment, and the population of the Azores, highlighting the resilience of the different islands and the sustainability of their tourism. To do that, we estimate an economic base model for the Azores islands that relates total employment per island with performance indicators of the basic activities (hosts, milk production, fish captures, external public support, and the service of the public debt). The results show that employment on the islands was reduced by around 7% because of the reduction in tourism activities. The analyses also revealed that the western small islands of Flores and Corvo, which had fewer COVID-19 cases in 2020, increased their specialization in tourism and Terceira island showed a relative touristic attractiveness at the expense of the nearby Graciosa and São Jorge. We also estimated a model that relates employment with the population to evaluate the potential impact of job losses in the population change in the Azores. The results show the loss of jobs did not affect significantly the population movement in the short run.

Keywords: Tourism; COVID-19; Azores islands; Resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R11 R58 Z32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s12076-023-00365-5

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