Abstract

The authors explore the extent to which tourism contributed to the economic growth of the different Spanish provinces and autonomous communities in the period 1999–2008. The results obtained by panel data analysis show that the elasticity of the provincial productivity with respect to tourism is equal to 0.10 when overnight stays of foreign tourists are taken as the indicator of provincial tourism, and 0.11 when total overnight stays are taken as the indicator. The results also show that the elasticity of the productivity of the autonomous communities with respect to tourism is slightly lower than the elasticity of the provincial productivity.