The role of tourism development in inclusive growth (A case study of middle-income and high-income countries)

Rafiei Darani, Hadi; Gohari Gharaei, Lida

doi:10.22072/tmsse.2026.2072882.1066

The role of tourism development in inclusive growth (A case study of middle-income and high-income countries)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article- original research

Authors

Hadi Rafiei Darani ¹

Lida Gohari Gharaei ²

¹ Tourism Economics Department, Institute of Tourism Research at ACECR (Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research) Khorasan Razavi

² Tourism Economics Department Institute of Tourism Research at ACECR (Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research), Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi, Iran

10.22072/tmsse.2026.2072882.1066

Abstract

In the face of simultaneous high economic growth on one hand and poverty, inequality, and unemployment on the other, an inclusive growth strategy has emerged as a new concept in growth economics, and it has been attracting the attention of researchers and policymakers. As tourism plays an important role in economic growth, this study explores the impact of tourism development on inclusive growth. For this purpose, firstly, a composite index for inclusive growth is calculated using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. This method was also used in making a composite index for tourism by weighting three indices. This research used the dynamic model based on the System Generalized Moments Method (GMM-SYS) for 18 middle-income countries and 25 high-income countries and compared the estimates in two separate regressions from 2004 to 2020. The results showed that the four indexes of tourism development had a positive and significant impact on both middle-income and high-income countries. This effect has been significantly higher in middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. This article is the first attempt to obtain a more comprehensive index for inclusive growth and investigate the impact of tourism on it.

Keywords

Inclusive growth index

Principal component analysis

Tourism development

GMM-Sys

Subjects