ESTIMATING DETERMINANTS OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DEMAND FOR MONGOLIA: GRAVITY MODEL APPROACH

Abstract

All sectors of the economy play an important role in making a stable and long running development. Tourism is one of the largest world industries globally and plays an important role in any country‘s economy. It has been recognized by many researchers as a significant driving force of economic development. Our thesis will concern the main determinants of international tourism demand.

With increasing globalization of today’s world, the tourism industry continually gets more and more competitive. For this reason, identifying the main determinants that influence the number of tourists visiting a particular country correctly can be a major concern of both tourism demand researchers and tourism practitioners. Over past decades, large amount of studies and researches on tourism demand and its’ determinants have been published. However, prior to 1990, within studies that concern tourism demand, tourism among West European and North American countries has dominated the research as these areas account for a very large proportion of tourism flows. Several studies examined international travel involving Australia, Japan, and Turkey. With few exceptions, other countries have largely been ignored. Which means research on developing countries lacked, in that count Mongolia. But lately the attention to an expansion of the international tourism industry in less-developed counties have increased.