<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper aims at determining the factors that influence the growth of international business tourism and understanding whether the demand growth of business tourism spreads across neighbouring countries. For the development of the empirical research, data has been collected from a sample of 136 countries worldwide, and spatial econometric techniques have been used. Evidence that supports the idea that the main factors related to the increase in incomes of business tourism are the private investment on tourism assets, the leisure tourism and the trade openness in relation to the outside world is presented. This study also reveals that the demand of business tourism in a country is not contagious, that is, the demand varies neither with the demand of its neighbours nor with their exogenous characteristics. The results have important implications for the choice of tourism policy goals at national levels and the corresponding policy instruments.</p></abstract>

This paper aims at determining the factors that influence the growth of international business tourism and understanding whether the demand growth of business tourism spreads across neighbouring countries. For the development of the empirical research, data has been collected from a sample of 136 countries worldwide, and spatial econometric techniques have been used. Evidence that supports the idea that the main factors related to the increase in incomes of business tourism are the private investment on tourism assets, the leisure tourism and the trade openness in relation to the outside world is presented. This study also reveals that the demand of business tourism in a country is not contagious, that is, the demand varies neither with the demand of its neighbours nor with their exogenous characteristics. The results have important implications for the choice of tourism policy goals at national levels and the corresponding policy instruments.

Do neighbouring countries encourage the demand of international business tourism?

School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo,

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Extremadura,

European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This paper aims at determining the factors that influence the growth of international business tourism and understanding whether the demand growth of business...

Do neighbouring countries encourage the demand of international business tourism?

Published Online: Mar 30, 2017

Page range: 156 - 167

Received: Nov 20, 2015

Accepted: May 05, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejthr-2016-0018

Keywords
Planning policy, Economic growth, Contagion effects, Business tourism, Convention tourism

© 2016 Pedro Carvalho et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Do neighbouring countries encourage the demand of international business tourism?

Published Online: Mar 30, 2017

Page range: 156 - 167

Received: Nov 20, 2015

Accepted: May 05, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejthr-2016-0018

KeywordsPlanning policy, Economic growth, Contagion effects, Business tourism, Convention tourism

© 2016 Pedro Carvalho et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Planning policy, Economic growth, Contagion effects, Business tourism, Convention tourism