Momentum investing in tourism stocks

This study examines momentum dynamics across U.S. tourism equity subsectors from 2011–2023. While momentum is well documented in broad equity markets, its behavior within tourism remains underexplored despite the sector’s pronounced demand volatility, heterogeneous information environments, and crisis sensitivity—characteristics that theoretically amplify behavioral asset-pricing mechanisms. Using the Jegadeesh–Titman (1993) framework, we document pronounced heterogeneity in return predictability across airlines, dining, hotels, and leisure services, including both continuation and reversals. Using parametric and non-parametric methods, we document pronounced heterogeneity: airlines and dining exhibit long-horizon reversals consistent with overconfidence-driven correction; leisure services display intermediate-horizon continuation aligned with gradual information diffusion; hotels show muted predictability. Findings contribute to tourism economics by demonstrating how industry structure conditions behavioral asset pricing, with implications for subsector-focused portfolio allocation and investor relations.