Advertising and tourist arrivals: Evidence from Jamaica

The major tourist generating countries for Jamaica's tourism industry were the most heavily hit by the global financial crisis. With home foreclosure and job losses on the rise in these supplier markets, luxury goods such as travel are likely to be significantly reduced. The response of the Jamaican government has been to intensify advertising campaigns. Although this may on the face appear to generate interest, there has been very little empirical evidence to suggest that advertising increases arrivals. To address this gap, the current work assesses the impact of advertising, along with a number of economic variables (for example, exchange rate, inflation), on tourist arrivals in Jamaica. The data for this research were generated from a database which comprises 30 years of secondary time series data on the variables for Jamaica. These were analysed using multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that it is exchange rate, not advertising that is most influential in stimulating tourist arrivals to Jamaica.