The Determinants of inbound tourism in Thailand : a gravity model analysis

Abstract

Tourism is widely recognized for its important role in generating income and employment for regional and national economic development. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of political incidents on inbound tourism in Thailand. The analysis is based on the gravity model and a quarterly dataset of inbound tourism from 46 countries over the decade 1999-2009. The empirical results reveal that political crises including violent riots, a closure of Suvanabhumi Airport and the invasion on the East Asia Summit negatively affected the inbound tourism in Thailand. This paper also examines the influence of variables such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which represent the living standard of countries and also foreign exchange rates which represent the purchasing power of their income. This study finds that the length and degree of political crisis significantly affected the number of inbound tourists.