Does tourism development matter in reducing income inequality in Africa’s Indian Ocean Island countries?

Andriamandroso Herinandrasana Andry (), Fouopi Djiogap Constant () and Yaya Deome Hamadjoda Lefe ()
Additional contact information
Andriamandroso Herinandrasana Andry: Pan African University
Fouopi Djiogap Constant: University of Yaounde II
Yaya Deome Hamadjoda Lefe: Pan African University

SN Business & Economics, 2025, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economic sectors today. The development of tourism plays a crucial role in distributing income more equitably among all social classes. This study examines the correlation between tourism and income inequality in four African Indian Ocean Island countries: Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Comoros. These countries are considered as members of the Indian Ocean Commission. The data was collected from the World Bank and World Inequality databases covering the period from 2000 to 2022. To ensure accuracy, four different estimation techniques were used including Ordinary Least Square Method, Least Square Dummy Variable, and Random and fixed-effect models. The findings indicate that the growth of tourism is linked to a reduction in income inequality in these African Island countries of the Indian Ocean. In essence, countries with higher levels of tourism tend to have lower income inequality. Governments could consider implementing economic policies that support social and inclusive tourism, thereby reducing income inequality.

Keywords: Tourism; Income inequality; Panel Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 L83 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-024-00769-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:snbeco:v:5:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s43546-024-00769-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43546

DOI: 10.1007/s43546-024-00769-5

Access Statistics for this article

SN Business & Economics is currently edited by Gino D'Oca

More articles in SN Business & Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().