Tourism inward investment and regional economic development effects: perspectives from tourism satellite accounts

The regional economic contribution of tourism-related inward investment is difficult to assess. This is due to data availability problems, and with inward investment in such industries often being dwarfed by that in either manufacturing or other services. However, there are cases where tourism demand represents a significant proportion of regional economic demand, and often in regions where there are economic development challenges. The paper suggests that the development of regional tourism satellite accounts, and their subsequent analysis, is a valuable means of analysing the different economic characteristics of the externally and domestically owned tourism-related sectors.