Tourism Impact on Human Development

Today the concept of tourism has been found to be quite different from the past. In other words، it is seen as an economic imperative. Tourism affects national employment levels، increases foreign exchange earnings، thrives local industry، expands of international cooperation، and most importantly، improves the welfare of the people. And many other factors caused world ''s attitude to the border it evolved as one of the most important driving forces of economic development، government policy will play an important role. Iran is one of the world''s major tourist hubs. This study investigates the effects of tourism on human development in selected countries (57 countries)، including Iran، using a panel data model. In this study، the Human Development Index is used to estimate the effect of tourism on development. Panel data regression model has been used in the present study to examine the impact of tourism on human development for selected countries over the period 2005-2011. The sample includes both developed as well as developing countries. The model is specified as follows: Where، expresses the human development index، health-related expenses، the number of foreign tourists to the country، life expectancy and education indicators are related expenditure (all variables are entered by the log). Discussion and Based on the Hausman test، fixed effects method used as appropriate method of estimation. The estimated value of the F statistic shows the regression is significant. The coefficients of the variables in the model represents a significant and positive relationship with Human Development Index. This means an increase in each of the components، namely education، health، life expectancy and the number of tourists will increase the human development index which in turn means an improvement in the living standards in the country. Tourism as one of the components of the service sector has played an important role especially in developing countries in promoting growth and development. The estimation results indicate that the number of foreign tourists has a positive and significant impact on the human development index. This result is not unexpected. Tourism encourages the flow of foreign currency and employment and also improves health، education، and welfare while alleviating poverty and inducing economic growth. Therefore concentrating on tourism as an important component of service industry enables countries to achieve development goals. Regional and international organizations can speed up this process.