84150 - Empirical Methods in Tourism Economics

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to introduce students to various econometric techniques for tourism, both in micro and macroeconomic context. The course is applied in nature. At the end, the student is able to: i) formulate tourism-related economic problems in a way that allows application to empirical data; ii) identify the appropriate econometric technique for the problem at hand; iii) perform econometric analysis using software packages; iv) understand and interpret results both statistically and economically.

Course contents

The tourism demand of a tourism destination from an empirical point of view

Collection of data

The use of STATA with tourist data

PCA and factor analysis

Cluster analysis applied to tourism

Examples of empirical methods in the literature

Readings/Bibliography

Mazzocchi M., 2008, Statistics for Marketing & Consumer Research. SAGE Publications

Additional teaching materials will be available on the website https://lauravici.com.

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars and lab work.

Assessment methods

Assessment is based on a written exam in lab. 

The exam is composed of a written test (80% of the final mark - max 24 over 30 points), covering the theoretical and empirical issues discussed during the lectures, and a practical test (20% of the final mark - max. 6 over 30 points).

For attending students, the practical test requires that the student collects some data about a particular issue related to predetermined tourism destinations (agreed with the teacher). The data collected must be delivered the date communicated during the lectures.

For non-attending students, the practical test does not require to collect data. As attending students, even non-attending students must study what has been explained in class (download teaching material available on this website) and know how to use the software STATA. Moreover, they have to write an essay (max 10 pages) on a topic decided by the teacher (students are invited to write her an e-mail to receive the topic of their essay). This essay must be a survey of the scientific literature on the topic. The essay will receive a maximum mark of 6 points (min. 0 - max 6 points) and can be delivered just once.

It is not possible to bring books, personal notes or electronic devices (included smart watch) during the exam. Registration for the exam is compulsory, and students have to register through AlmaEsami according to the general rules of the School of Economics, Management and Statistics.

The mark is out of 30 points (given by a maximum of 24 points related to the written test and a maximum of 6 points related to the practical test), and the minimum required to pass the exam is 18/30 (a minimum of 14.5/30 in the written test).

Teaching tools

The laboratory uses bibliographic sources, databases and software to analyse data. 

Office hours

See the website of Laura Vici