Tourism Economics

The vast majority of households in developed economies share three economic features:

• they have more money than they need for their subsistence,
• they dispose of more time than they need for earning their living,
• and they have access to more space than they need for being.

Individuals therefore use part of their resources (time and money) for recreation at home or away, i.e. in a different place. The course starts providing an analytical framework for the tourism experience, distinguishing the phases "get there", "stay there" and "live there". We then proceed to look at the demand and supply side of tourism from a microeconomic perspective and proceed to consider integrators and destinations as players on the tourism market. In a second part the course takes a macroeconomic perspective discussing issues like tourism and regional development, trade and globalization and tourism impacts.
While the course offers also an introduction to basic analytical tools of economics, students without a background in economics are expected to do additional self-studies based on books indicated below. In addition to the two textbooks background material will be provided during classes.
The course will consists of lectures and interactive group exercises that will be graded together with classroom participation. The evaluation during the course will represent 30% of the final grade.
Two useful books are Stabler et al. and Tribe, where Tribe provides many of the basic analytical tools and applies them to tourism. Including extensive Q&A and exercise sections, the book is ideal for self-learning and essential for students without a bachelor degree in economics. Stabler et al. is slightly more advanced applying economic concepts to tourism assuming some basic knowledge of economics. This book will be used as the principal text for course and exam.

Stabler, Mike J., Andreas Papatheodorou and Thea Sinclair (2010, 2nd ed.) The Economics of Tourism; Routledge.