Estimating the global economic impacts of international tourism

This paper provides insights on the economic impacts of international tourism by using measures of expenditure by non-residents estimated within the framework of OECD’s Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) tables. Expenditure by non-residents represent a significant revenue source for tourism-related industries in many countries, with spillover effects into other industries through inter-sectoral linkages. The ICIO framework captures the direct and indirect value added generated from international tourism that are not directly measurable in national statistics. This analysis reveals that while most of the value added is generated by domestic industries directly serving tourists (such as hotels and restaurants), roughly 28% of value added from tourism activities is generated indirectly (upstream) in the domestic economy and around 17% is generated abroad. This analysis demonstrates the importance of domestic and global value chains in the production of goods and services consumed by non-residents.