Modelling interstate tourism demand in Australia: A cointegration approach

Abstract

Interstate tourism is an important component of the domestic tourism business in Australia. However, empirical analyses of interstate tourism demand have not been previously undertaken. The motivation for this paper is to investigate the short- and long-run causal relationships between economic factors and interstate tourism demand in Australia. Using a cointegration approach, this study discovers two distinct results. First, Australian household income, accommodation prices, prices of recreation and restaurants, and domestic airfares have significant impacts on the demand in the short-run. Second, some of the long-run economic coefficients show incorrect signs, which contradict the theory of consumer demand. © 2008 IMACS.