Does culture affect tourism demand? A global perspective

Abstract

Tourism studies commonly focus on the determinants of tourism demand. While most examine factors such as economic determinants, research on the effect of culture on tourism demand remains underdeveloped. This study uses a Bayesian two-stage median regression method to eliminate the potential collinearity between cultural and travel distance and to estimate the impact of cultural distance more appropriately. The results show that while there is a negative relationship between cultural distance and tourism demand, tourism demand is less sensitive to change in cultural distance; the popularity of a travel route moderates the effect of cultural distance on tourism demand; and the influence of cultural distance is different across time and different source markets.