Geopolitical risk and tourism demand in emerging economies

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) on international tourism demand in emerging economies. We have found that impact of GPR is not homogeneous for every country in our sample; for example, some countries are affected heavily by GPR and others are mostly immune to GPR shocks. In general, for countries that have attractive tourism destinations, the impact of GPR is minimal, indicating that if international tourists desperately want to go a destination, they do not take GPR seriously. In addition, the tsunami impact of GPR is not the same for all affected countries. For some countries, the GPR shocks have an impact within 2 to 3 months of its ‘first hit’, while for other countries, the impact is felt over longer periods.