Length of stay and daily tourist expenditure: A joint analysis

Abstract

In recent years, patterns of tourism consumption have been characterized by reduction of the length of stay that has been tried to counteract by the increase in daily tourists' expenditure or the increase in tourist numbers. To understand the impact of these changes on the travel and hospitality industries this paper undertakes a decomposition analysis between the personal daily expenditure and the length of stay of tourists. The place where the expenditure takes place, by distinguishing in-accommodation and outside-accommodation expenditures, and different expenditure categories including entertainment amenities, restaurants, transport, excursions, gifts and souvenirs and food & drink in supermarkets are considered in the decomposition exercise. Results aim at identifying different tourist segments with different expected impacts on length of stay and daily tourist expenditures, a result that can be of interest for tourism management purposes.