The impact of Cultural Indicators on middle east countries international tourism flows by using systematic generalized method of moments technique

As one of the highest earning industries in the world, tourism industry can play an important role in economic growth. In this regard, although cultural indices (i.e. veiling and compulsory coverage, religion and common language) a s factors affecting tourism have been addressed as effective factors on tourism flows, low number of studies have been conducted on impact of cultural indices 1on tourism flows. Therefore, present paper investigated effects of cultural indices and exchange rate regimes on tourism flows among Middle East countries Includes Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Oman, Iraq, israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Emarates United of Arabia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey. In this study method of systematic generalized method of moments was used to investigate effect of cultural characteristics in attracting foreign tourist of Middle East countries over the years 1993-2013. The results show that common religious and language positively influence the tourism flow while veiling and compulsory cover are along with negative and significant impact. Also, colonization, trade, gross domestic product, distance and exchange rate regimes and population provide positive and significant impacts while exchange rate has the negative impact on tourism flow.