This paper presents a comprehensive review of the econometric approaches for the analysis of tourism expenditure at individual level. The attempt to consider only regression models is novel in literature. The paper resumes 86 papers and 354 estimates of econometric models from data at individual level, ranging from 1977 to the early 2012. Discussion focuses on models used, dependent variables, explanatory variables by category and their effect on expenditure. The most frequently used explanatory variables were income, socio-demographic and trip-related, and were tested mainly through classical regression techniques (OLS, quantile, Tobit and two-step, logistic). Future research directions should concern the exploration of new evidence through novel methodological techniques, a more extensive use of psychographic variables and a stronger relation to economic theory.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the econometric approaches for the analysis of tourism expenditure at individual level. The attempt to consider only regression models is novel in literature. The paper resumes 86 papers and 354 estimates of econometric models from data at individual level, ranging from 1977 to the early 2012. Discussion focuses on models used, dependent variables, explanatory variables by category and their effect on expenditure. The most frequently used explanatory variables were income, socio-demographic and trip-related, and were tested mainly through classical regression techniques (OLS, quantile, Tobit and two-step, logistic). Future research directions should concern the exploration of new evidence through novel methodological techniques, a more extensive use of psychographic variables and a stronger relation to economic theory.

No abstract

Some recent empirical contributions have highlighted that tourists often\ud go to museums yet appear to extract little utility from the experience. We argue that\ud this is often the case with agents who visit museums only while on holiday and\ud results from a temporary lack of substitute experience goods or compliance with a\ud must-do list. If such agents behaved according to Stigler and Becker’s rational\ud addiction theory, they would also visit museums while at home. However, most do\ud not, which makes them constantly occasional consumers. We indirectly test for the\ud presence of constantly occasional museum attendance by tourists, using data from a\ud survey conducted in 2012 at Vittoriale, the most popular museum at Lake Garda, a\ud renowned Italian tourist destination. By applying multiple correspondence analysis\ud to a question on motivations to visit the museum, we obtain two dimensions of\ud motivation: one based on a search for knowledge and the other based on a more\ud recreational attitude. Identification of the latter is a new finding in itself. We include\ud these dimensions as regressors in a model used to explain museum attendance. We\ud find, as expected, that light consumption negatively affects attendance. We therefore\ud argue that empirical analyses of museum attendance should not disregard light\ud motivation as a possible driver

No abstract

Passengers disembarking from cruise ships at ports of call have significant economic effects on the host destination. This paper studies the determinants of cruise passengers' spending while visiting two ports in Uruguay. Data from an official survey are used to investigate the likely determinants of expenditure in the 2011–2012 cruise season. The Heckit model suggests the presence of a decision process of purchasing that might be more ‘instinctive’ than is suggested by the findings of other papers for general tourism expenditure. The improvement of the economic effects of a cruise requires the formulation of appropriate marketing strategies according to the nationality of passengers. In addition, several findings indicate that such enhancement is more required in the port of Punta del Este, whose logistics do not facilitate the direct disembarkation of tourists to the port.

This article provides an empirical investigation of the effects of the ownership and organizational structure on the performance of cultural institutions. More specifically, we consider how museums are effective in their function of disseminating culture to audiences and contributing to the local development. By exploiting a unique data set based on the 2011 census of Italian museums, we develop indexes of accessibility, visitors' experience, web visibility and promotion of the local cultural context. Using count data models, we regress such measures on the type of organization. We distinguish between governmental museums, public museums whose administration is either outsourced or has financial autonomy and private museums. We control for the most salient characteristics of a museum, competition pressure and some proxies of potential audience. Our evidence shows that private museums, public museums with financial autonomy and outsourced museums outperform public museums run as sub-units of culture departments. This paper contributes to the cultural economics, policy and public administration literature by adding insights into the effect of outsourcing and administrative decentralization in the public cultural sector.

No abstract