Economic theory and the empirical literature are not conclusive about the impact of tourism on local economic growth. In this paper we estimate the impact of foreign tourists’ spending on value added per capita growth in the Italian provinces, using various econometric strategies.
The results show that, overall, the effect on growth is positive and statistically significant, but modest in economic terms. The impact is larger for the less developed provinces, and null for those with the highest tourist revenues per inhabitant at the beginning of the period, suggesting that congestion phenomena may occur.
Published in 2022 in: Regional Studies, v. 56, 1, pp- 140-154
