Tourism and contribution to employment: global evidence

Purpose This study examines how tourism contributes to employment. Design/methodology/approach Using various econometric techniques for panel data, the study estimates the contribution of tourism to employment in a sample of 148 economies from 2002 to 2017. The analysis is also carried out for three sub-samples according to income levels. Findings This study has three significant contributions: Firstly , it shows that investment and consumption in the tourism sector have positive benefits for employment. Furthermore, the improvement of institutional quality boosts these positive gains. Secondly , there is a U-inverted relationship between the income level and total contributions of tourism to employment. The development of the tourism industry would therefore follow the pattern suggested by the Kuznets curve hypothesis. Thirdly , the positive effects of tourism investment and consumption in tourism are evidenced in all three sub-samples. In contrast, the effects of institutions seem to be weaker in higher-income economies (implying that there is a larger space for low-income economies to use institutional reform to boost the development and contribution of tourism in their economies). Finally, institutional quality appears to enhance the contribution of tourism to employment. Originality/value The study highlights the importance of the tourism industry in enhancing employment.