AN ARDL MODEL OF AGGREGATE TOURISM DEMAND FOR TURKEY

Abstract

This study empirically examines aggregate tourism demand function for Turkey using the time series data for the period 1960-2002. The total tourist arrivals into Turkey are related to world income, relative prices and transportation cost. We employ bounds testing cointegration procedure proposed by Pesaran et al. (2001) to compute the short and long-run elasticities of income, price, and transportation cost variables. We also implement CUSUM and CUSUMSQ stability tests on the aggregate tourism demand function. The empirical results indicate that income is the most significant variable in explaining the total tourist arrivals to Turkey and there exists a stable tourism demand function.