Tourism in Galicia : Domestic and Foreign Demand

This paper analyses the main determinants of the demand for tourism in Galicia and quantifies their incidence. We elaborate two models depending on the origin (domestic or foreign) of the tourists. For the domestic demand, we use a panel of annual data on the 17 regions of origin of tourists during the period 1999-2006. For the international demand, we use another annual panel of 24 countries of origin of tourists for the same period. The estimated elasticities suggest that both domestic and foreign tourism in Galicia is very sensitive to income in the origin markets and to prices. Other findings are the dependence of domestic tourism on its own past and the sensitivity of tourism to the celebration of the Holy Year. The results may be useful for helping professionals and policy makers in the decision making process