Modelling International Travel Demand from Singapore to Australia

Abstract

Prior to the recent Asian currency and economic crises, tourism from Asia had rapidly become Australia's major tourism export industry. Tourists from Singapore, which is Australia's fifth major market, represented 6% of international tourist arrivals to Australia in 1996. The average annual growth rate of tourist arrivals from Singapore of around 20% over 1990-96 far exceeded the 10.5% average annual percentage growth rate of all tourist arrivals to Australia over the same period (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997). Despite the Asian currency and economic crises in 1997-98, tourist arrivals to Australia from Singapore have continued to grow slowly. It is imperative to consider the economic factors influencing international tourism demand for Australia by Singapore, and to undertake a sensitivity analysis of tourist arrivals to changes in the factors. The purpose of the paper is to estimate the income, price and transportation cost elasticities of inbound tourism from Singapore to Australia using seasonally unadjusted quarterly data. Initially, estimation is undertaken using ordinary least squares. Given New Zealand's proximity to Australia, it is also useful to determine using a single-equation model if Australia and New Zealand are substitute or complementary destinations for Singaporean tourists by examining the effects of the relative price changes in New Zealand and Australia on international travel demand for Australia. In addition, seasonal influences are examined using the single-equation model. The OLS estimates of the appropriate single-equation model are also compared with the estimates obtained using the cointegration method in Lim and McAleer (2001).