Evaluating the economy-wide effects of the ‘missing’ tourist: an application for the region of Andalusia

Measuring the importance of tourism industries and the resilience of these activities is still a key research topic in tourism economics and management. The present analysis offers two novel indexes that evaluate these issues separately from an economy-wide perspective. Another innovation of our research is empirical and consists of controlling for the idiosyncratic characteristics of each type of tourist’s consumption classified by their origin. The first index, named the total impact of the ‘missing’ tourist, approximates the amount of total net income lost per euro not spent by that category of tourist when he decides not to visit that region. The second indicator computes the short-term total regional resilience to each ‘missing’ tourist when other exporting sectors counteract the economic loss generated by that tourist. Using a linear applied general equilibrium approach, we focus on the region of Andalusia, offering valuable insights about how tourism policies should be redirected.