The Use of Tourist Money Flow Analysis in Measuring the Impact of Tourism Development on the Regional Economy

Abstract

There have been several research methodologies to measure the impacts of tourism development on the regional economy, such as input-output analysis, income multiplier analysis, labor creation effect analysis, etc. Most of these are based on regional economic indices using secondary data for medium to large regional units. This study tests the possibility of adopting the tourist money flow analysis, which is centered on tracing a series of money flows beginning with tourists' payment for room, board and shopping, followed by tourist companies' expenditure for material and service purchase, wage, utilities, rent, tax and so forth, and by tourism workers' expenses for living and savings. This method makes it possible to reveal the amount and geographical extent of tourist money flow and draws some meaningful regional economic figures. Case studies of two tourist developing areas show that it can be utilized for economic impact studies for small scale areas.