Population characteristics and the impact of tourism on economic development

Currently, there are two opposing research lines regarding the capacity of tourism to influence the level of economic development. In this context, this research study, after analysing the validity of each one of these two lines, advocates for an intermediate situation based on the premise that there is no automatic relationship between these two dimensions, but instead, a country must meet certain characteristics in order for this link to occur. In this sense, once proven the importance of population characteristics in the level of socioeconomic progress by scientific literature, applying an econometric model, using a sample of 144 countries – divided between more developed countries and less developed countries –, it has showed that the reduction of the emigrant population – especially high-qualified people – and the existence of low unemployment rates have contributed to the transformation of tourism growth into economic development. In addition, it has also demonstrated that countries with regressive population pyramids have greater difficulties for tourism growth improve their socioeconomic conditions. Therefore, international agencies and institutions that seek to use tourism as an effective tool for alleviate poverty should consider these factors before making significant investments that ultimately do not produce the expected results