The Influence of SARS Disease On Global Tourism Flows by Using Panel Data and Gravity Model

Abstract

[eng] The article analyses the influence of SARS disease and other pandemics on international tourism flows. The analysis utilizes panel data at the national level over 1995 to 2019 period, which includes data before and after the explosion of disease. By adopting the gravity model, the article investigates not only how the disease threats the global tourism flows but also quantifies changes on tourism movements before and after the outbreak. By including different types of pandemics that happened during the past 25 years, it is possible to compare the impact of suffering a pandemic outbreaks as well as to quantify the effect of different types of contagious diseases. Interestingly, the results shows that SARS did not have a remarkable influence on tourism movements, contrary to other pandemics, after including the appropriate set of controls and fixed effects. Therefore, it seems that the rapid response of affected countries minimized the impact of the SARS on international tourism movements and it allowed the tourism industry to grow rapidly after the SARS.