An Examination of the Norwegian Demand for Package Tours Abroad in the 1990s

Abstract

This article draws attention to a neglected field in tourism research: the study of the demand for package tours. In particular, two research questions were addressed. First, the possible changes in the demand over time for package tours abroad were examined using Norwegian household expenditures data from 1989 to 1999. Second, the article examined how a number of sociodemographic and locational variables affected the demand for this kind of tourism. Because a large number of households in the data did not take part in a package tour abroad in the period studied, a sample-selection regression procedure was adopted as the estimation strategy. Three results were especially noteworthy: 1) An increasing number of Norwegian households took part in a package tour as the decade progressed. 2) Among those households that took part in a package tour, the mean expenditures decreased throughout the decade. 3) Permanent income had a positive influence on both the propensity of taking part in package tours and on the expenditures on such tours.