Analyzing the Relationship Between Economic Growth And Tourism Growth with a Spatial Econometric Approach (Case Study: Provinces of Iran)

Economically, the tourism industry is a relatively new phenomenon in international exchanges. Today, tourism is considered one of the most important sources of foreign exchange income in many countries. The tourism industry as an economic, social and cultural activity has become very important for the development of countries. Considering the effect of spatial proximity, the present study examines the relationship between the two variables of economic growth and tourism growth for 29 provinces of Iran in the period of 2011-2018. The results show that considering the location dimension, the two variables of economic growth and tourism growth have a positive and significant effect on each other. In other words, the economic growth and tourism growth of the studied provinces have spatial and spatial effects and are affected by other provinces, and the smaller the distance between the provinces, the lower the cost of travel. Therefore, tourism is more influenced by the neighborhood.