GOVERNANCE QUALITY AND TOURISM: MODERATION OF SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF CRIME

Researchers have identified the impact of crime rates on tourism development, and in this study we intend to look into the possible social causes behind those impacts. In this pursuit, we analyze the moderating role of social determinants of crime in shaping the association between tourism development and governance for 30 Asia-Pacific countries over 1990-2017. In methodological terms, we have employed principal component analysis (PCA) for index building and generalized method of moments (GMM) for the estimation of long run elasticities. Using PCA, we have built separate indices for tourism development and social indicators. Results of GMM indicate that incidents of unemployment and increase in refugee population can diminish the positive impact of education on the association between tourism development and governance. The policymakers need to focus more on capacity building and job creation for internalizing the social imbalances, which might hamper the governance quality for fostering the development of the tourism sector.