Assessing impacts of SARS and Avian Flu on international tourism demand to Asia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of infectious diseases including Avian Flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome (hereafter SARS) on international tourist arrivals in Asian countries using both single datasets and panel data procedures. An autoregressive moving average model together with an exogenous variables (ARMAX) model are used to estimate the effects of these diseases in each SARS- and Avian Flu-infected country, while a dynamic panel model is adopted to estimate the overall impact on the region of these two diseases. The empirical results from both approaches are consistent and indicate that the numbers of affected cases have a significant impact on SARS-affected countries but not on Avian Flu-affected countries. However, since the potential damage arising from the Avian Flu and subsequent pandemic influenza is much greater than that resulting from the SARS, the need to take the necessary precautions in the event of an outbreak of Avian Flu and pandemic influenza warrants further attention and action. Therefore, the empirical findings of this study could add to the knowledge regarding the relationship between tourism and crisis management, especially in so far as the management of transmissible diseases is concerned. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

An Investor's Perspective on Infectious Diseases and Their Influence on Market Behavior

“…Because of different levels of damage, the tourism industry in Asian countries was affected to different degrees by SARS (Page et al 2006;Kuo et al 2008). China was affected most; not only was tourism impacted but also retail sales, restaurants, hotels and the air transport industry (Keogh-Brown, Richard 2008).…”

Determinants of Chinese demand for tourism in Malaysia

“…Song & Li (2008) and Song et al (2012) in their survey of literature related to tourism demand studies have concluded that tourist arrival is the leading measurement in measuring tourism demand followed by other measurements such as tourism receipts and length of stay. Some examples of studies that measured tourism demand in terms of tourist arrivals include those of Dritsakis & Gialitaki (2001), Garin-Munoz (2006), Kuo, Chen, Tseng, Ju, & Huang (2008), Mohd Hanafiah, Mohd Harun, & Jamaluddin (2010), Kusni, Kadir, & Nayan (2013), and Puah, Thien, & Arip (2014).…”

Under the Volcano: Responses of a Community-Based Tourism Village to the 2010 Eruption of Mount Merapi, Indonesia

“…Several reports have shown that disasters impact tourism destinations [2,4,[48][49][50][51]. Disasters make tourism destinations vulnerable, and especially vulnerable when the community manages the tourism destination in a 'communal' way, namely as an informal organization that depends strongly on social commitment.…”