Exploring the Uncharted Export: an Analysis of Tourism-Related Foreign Expenditure with International Spend Data

TL;DR

This paper analyzes foreign tourism expenditure using open source and anonymized transaction data from Colombia and the Netherlands, revealing patterns related to destination attractiveness, geographic distribution, and influencing factors like distance and cultural ties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining open source and transaction data to better understand tourism expenditure and destination patterns, overcoming limitations of traditional classification methods.

Findings

Tourists tend to concentrate or decentralize depending on the destination.

Distance, wealth, and cultural affinity significantly influence tourism patterns.

Open data and transaction analysis reveal tourism evolution over time.

Abstract

Tourism is one of the most important economic activities in the world: for many countries it represents the single largest product in their export basket. However, it is a product difficult to chart: "exporters" of tourism do not ship it abroad, but they welcome importers inside the country. Current research uses social accounting matrices and general equilibrium models, but the standard industry classifications they use make it hard to identify which domestic industries cater to foreign visitors. In this paper, we make use of open source data and of anonymized and aggregated transaction data giving us insights about the spend behavior of foreigners inside two countries, Colombia and the Netherlands, to inform our research. With this data, we are able to describe what constitutes the tourism sector, and to map the most attractive destinations for visitors. In particular, we find that countries might observe different geographical tourists' patterns -- concentration versus decentralization --; we show the importance of distance, a country's reported wealth and cultural affinity in informing tourism; and we show the potential of combining open source data and anonymized and aggregated transaction data on foreign spend patterns in gaining insight as to the evolution of tourism from one year to another.