Implications of Oil Price Fluctuations for Tourism Receipts: The Case of Oil Exporting Countries

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of oil prices on tourism income in countries that heavily relied on crude oil exports from 2000 to 2017. We found that oil prices and tourism receipts are cointegrated, revealing the existence of their long-run equilibrium relationship. Another significant finding to emerge from this study is the presence of a unidirectional Granger causality that runs from the oil prices to the tourism receipts. The results of the current study are of particular importance for policymakers who operate in oil-exporting countries. The implications provide a systematic understanding of the effect of oil price fluctuations on tourism income which can benefit investors greatly by enabling them to hedge against oil price fluctuations and plan for their tourism business and policymakers by enabling them to set policies to stabilize oil price fluctuations and plan for tourism development, correspondingly.