Determinants of demand for inbound tourism (based on the experience of Europe and the CIS)

The article analyzes the factors of demand for inbound tourism. The infor- mation about tourist arrivals is taken as a measure of demand. The article is focused on the European countries and the CIS for 2013. The study is based mainly on the information of World Bank and UNESCO. For regression analy- sis the authors use the method of least squares. According to the results, the average cost of tourism products has a significant negative impact on the level of inbound tourism in the country in general. Alternatively, the level of GDP per capita, the number of objects of cultural and historical heritage and the availability of opportunities for different kinds of tourism have a signifi- cant positive influence on the inbound tourism industry. The authors have revealed that tourists have different preferences for countries with such ca- pabilities and for the states developing mainly one type of tourism: the num- ber of tourist arrivals for the first group of countries is more price elastic in tourism products than for the second. The factor that characterizes the poten- tial threat of terrorism has statistically significant impact on the number of tourist arrivals neither for the whole sample nor for groups of countries under consideration. Further development of research may consist in the analysis of the relevant data for countries in other regions, increasing the volume of sample and using the methods for more countries, as well as the applying panel data analysis techniques. This will allow to take into account dynamics of the indicators and can help to identify additional determinants of tourist demand. The results will be useful for planning the inbound tourism develop- ment in the countries.