Saudi Tourism Expenditure on accommodation: pre-, in- and post- COVID19 comparison. Seera Group case study

Abstract

[eng] This paper examines tourist expenditure on accommodation determinants of Saudi leisure travellers separately for domestic and outbound segments in the context of COVID-19 pandemia. The analysis is based on a populational dataset provided by a private company, Seera Group, with a representative share in the market (7% of the bookings in 2019). The results of the study, therefore, could potentially be extrapolated to other similar companies or different companies operating in the same market. This study had a twofold aim. On one hand, to investigate the differences, if any, between pre-, in- and post-COVID19 pandemic periods for outbound and domestic tourism separately, generating in this way 6 subgroups in the data. The other goal was to evaluate the impact of a list of potentially relevant factors on the tourist expenditure on accommodation, separately for the aforementioned periods and market segments. First, descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Then, ANOVA was employed to test for statistically significant differences in average accommodation expenditure between the defined subsets. FInally, multiple regression analyses were performed for the 6 segments of the data to determine what determinants affect tourist expenditure on accommodation of each. The expenditure per stay was regressed on a number of explanatory variables, that can be grouped as trip characteristics, accomodation type and traveller online behaviour. The results corroborate significant differences in expenditures between the subsets as well as difference in their explanatory variables and their respective parameters estimates. The research suggests what type of trips have a higher economic impact in the destination and the businesses and, thus, provides valuable information for tourism management in public and private sectors.