Domestic tourism expenditures: The non-linear effects of length of stay and travel party size

Economic effects of tourism and its influencing factors

“…Gender and marital status do not seem to predict spending in general (Lawson 1994;Wang et al 2006); this is reflected in the large share of non-significant results in the studies reviewed even though, for example, Mak et al (1977b) found the latter variable to be significant. In contrast, income can generally be regarded as a reliable predictor (Fish, Waggle 1996): consistent with economic theory the relationship between income level and tourism expenditure is positive in 21 out of 29 studies with Agarwal and Yochum (1999) Thrane, Farstad (2011) reporting inelastic relations. This means with growing income, tourism expenditure increases as well but at a lower rate.…”

“…In visitor surveys, however, it remains unclear which part of the package tour expenses paid in the region of origin flows to the destination. Only eight studies Svensson et al (2011) visitors traveling by car spent more than those using public transport, whereas Fredman (2008), Marcussen (2011), Thrane, Farstad (2011, Abbruzzo et al (2014) report higher expenditure by visitors using planes and trains. The number of visits to a destination usually reflects loyalty to a destination as well as familiarity with the place and insider knowledge, with more visits possibly associated with less spending (Alegre, Juaneda Sampol 2006).…”

“…In many studies, age has been tested as a predictor variable with ambiguous results: in 11 out of 31 studies age was not found to influence spending in a statistically significant way, in seven studies spending depends positively on the age of visitors and four times a negative relation was found. The findings of Aguilo Perez, Juaneda Sampol (2000), Pouta et al (2006), Thrane, Farstad (2011) Sánchez et al (2013) suggest that age might not be related to expenditure in a linear but curvilinear way. That means low spending is found in the youngest and the oldest age segments whereas high spenders are middle aged.…”

“…Territorial effects of tourist spending were also found by Svensson et al (2011) for Andalusia: visitors in cities caused larger turnover than those in rural areas and both types spent more than tourists at coastal destinations. Likewise Thrane, Farstad (2011) found that depending on the urbanity, respectively location size and remoteness the expenditures of Norwegian domestic tourists vary significantly with visitors in rural and mountain/wilderness settings spending the least. Pouta et al (2006) tested the influence of the supply of outdoor services and recreation opportunities on expenditure at a destination level.…”

“…The influence of length of stay tends to be negative with per day expenditure as a dependent variable. Non-linear effects can be observed: for longer trips the generally positive relationship between length of stay and total expenditure becomes weaker, a diminishing positive effect was observed, theoretically explained by economies of scale (Thrane, Farstad 2011;Aguilo Perez, Juaneda Sampol 2000;Roehl, Fesenmaier 1995).…”