Does Crime Affect Inbound Tourism? Evidence From a Sub-national Perspective in Japan

Abstract

Inbound tourism is welcomed by many governments due to its numerous benefits for the destination country. Besides, crime is often considered a factor that negatively affects tourism; but empirical evidence does not universally support this perspective. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of crime on inbound tourism using Japan as a case study. For further investigating the spatial externalities of inbound tourism from a sub-national perspective, we employ spatial panel data models. The findings indicate that the total crime rate does not have a significant impact on inbound tourism, while the violent crime rate exhibits a significant negative effect. This suggests that the selection of crime variables is important. Additionally, the significant spillover effects underscore the importance of regional cooperation.

Keywords

crime inbound tourism Japan spillover effect sub-national tourism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ahad

Anwer

Ahmad

(2022). Does crime-tourism nexus hold for Pakistan? International Journal of Emerging Markets, 17(8), 1815–1839. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoem-08-2020-0889

Ahiawodzi

A. K.

(2013). Tourism earnings and economic growth in Ghana. British Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 7(2), 187–202.

Ajagunna

(2006). Crime and harassment in Jamaica: Consequences for sustainability of the tourism industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 18(3), 253–259. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110610658652

Alleyne

Boxill

(2003). The impact of crime on tourist arrivals in Jamaica. International Journal of Tourism Research, 5(5), 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.444

Altindag

D. T.

(2014). Crime and international tourism. Journal of Labor Research, 35(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-014-9174-8

Andrés-Rosales

Sánchez-Mitre

L. A.

Cruz Marcelo

J. N.

(2017). Insecurity and its impact on tourism in Guerrero: A spatial approach,1999-2014. Revista de relaciones internacionales estrategia y seguridad, 13(1), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.18359/ries.2977

Baltagi

(2021). Econometric analysis of panel data. John Wiley & Sons.

Barton

M. S.

Weil

Jackson

Hickey

D. A.

(2017). An investigation of the influence of the spatial distribution of neighborhood violent crime on fear of crime. Crime and Delinquency, 63(13), 1757–1776. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128716671874

Hengyun

Hailin

(2017). The spillover effect of attractions. Tourism Economics, 23(4), 731–743. https://doi.org/10.5367/te.2016.0541

10.

Capone

Boix

(2008). Sources of growth and competitiveness of local tourist production systems: An application to Italy (1991–2001). Annals of Regional Science, 42(1), 209–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-007-0133-7

11.

Carrascal Incera

Fernández Fernández

Pereira López

. (2015). Spillover effects of tourism consumption between Galicia and the rest of Spain. International Journal of Tourism Research, 17(2), 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.1978

12.

Centinaio

Comerio

Pacicco

(2023). Arrivederci!An analysis of tourism impact in the Italian provinces. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 24(4), 563–589. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480.2021.2025187

13.

Cliff

A. D.

Ord

(1970). Spatial autocorrelation: A review of existing and new measures with applications. Economic Geography, 46, 269. https://doi.org/10.2307/143144

14.

Comerio

Pacicco

Serati

(2020). An analysis of sub-national tourism in Japan: Tourist and economic spillovers and their determinants. Annals of Tourism Research, 85(1), 102881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.102881

15.

Deng

(2017). Evaluating impact of air pollution on China’s inbound tourism industry: A spatial econometric approach. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 22(7), 771–780. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2017.1331923

16.

De Vita

. (2014). The long-run impact of exchange rate regimes on international tourism flows. Tourism Management, 45, 226–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.05.001

17.

Elhorst

J. P.

(2012). Matlab software for spatial panels. International Regional Science Review, 37(3), 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017612452429

18.

Elhorst

J. P.

(2014). Spatial Econometrics. Springer.

19.

Fourie

Rosselló-Nadal

Santana-Gallego

(2020). Fatal attraction: How security threats hurt tourism. Journal of Travel Research, 59(2), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287519826208

20.

George

(2003). Tourist's perceptions of safety and security while visiting Cape Town. Tourism Management, 24(5), 575–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0261-5177(03)00003-7

21.

Ghaderi

Saboori

Khoshkam

(2017). Does security matter in tourism demand? Current Issues in Tourism, 20(6), 552–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1161603

22.

Gozgor

Lau

C. K. M.

Zeng

Lin

(2019). The effectiveness of the legal system and inbound tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 76, 24–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.03.003

23.

Gunn

(1973). Report of tourism-environment study panel. Destination USA, 5, 25-34.

24.

Habibi

(2017). The determinants of inbound tourism to Malaysia: A panel data analysis. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(9), 909–930. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1145630

25.

Henderson

J. C.

(2017). Destination development: Trends in Japan's inbound tourism. International Journal of Tourism Research, 19(1), 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2088

26.

Kakamu

Polasek

Wago

(2008). Spatial interaction of crime incidents in Japan. Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 78(2-3), 276–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matcom.2008.01.019

27.

Kelejian

H. H.

Prucha

I. R.

(1998). A generalized spatial two-stage least squares procedure for estimating a spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances. Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 17(1), 99–121. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007707430416

28.

Kelley Pace

Barry

. (1997). Sparse spatial autoregressions. Statistics & Probability Letters, 33(3), 291–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-7152(96)00140-x

29.

Kim

Lee

C.-K.

Mjelde

J. W.

(2016). Impact of economic policy on international tourism demand: The case of Abenomics. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(16), 1912–1929. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1198307

30.

Kim

Y. R.

Liu

Stienmetz

Chen

(2022). Visitor flow spillover effects on attraction demand: A spatial econometric model with multisource data. Tourism Management, 88, 104432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104432

31.

Lee

(2012). Spatial panels: Random components versus fixed effects. International Economic Review, 53(4), 1369–1412. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2354.2012.00724.x

32.

Lepp

Gibson

(2003). Tourist roles, perceived risk and international tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 30(3), 606–624. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-7383(03)00024-0

33.

Liu

Nijkamp

Huang

Lin

(2017). Urban livability and tourism development in China: Analysis of sustainable development by means of spatial panel data. Habitat International, 68, 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.02.005

34.

Liu

Parkpian

(2018). Inbound tourism in Thailand: Market form and scale differentiation in ASEAN source countries. Tourism Management, 64, 22–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.07.016

35.

Martins

L. F.

Gan

Ferreira-Lopes

(2017). An empirical analysis of the influence of macroeconomic determinants on World tourism demand. Tourism Management, 61, 248–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.01.008

36.

MLIT. (2014). White paper on land, infrastructure, transport and tourism in Japan. Author.

37.

Moran

P. A.

(1950). Notes on continuous stochastic phenomena. Biometrika, 37(1-2), 17–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/2332142

38.

Moyo

Ziramba

(2013). The impact of crime on inbound tourism to South Africa: An application of the bounds test. African Security Review, 22(1), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2012.737815

39.

C.-O.

(2005). The contribution of tourism development to economic growth in the Korean economy. Tourism Management, 26(1), 39–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2003.09.014

40.

Park

Kim

Y.-R.

Yeon

(2023). Stronger together: International tourists “spillover” into close countries. Tourism Economics, 29(5), 1204–1224. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548166221098320

41.

Pham

T. D.

Nghiem

Dwyer

(2017). The determinants of Chinese visitors to Australia: A dynamic demand analysis. Tourism Management, 63, 268–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.06.015

42.

Rauf

Abbas

A. M. A.

Rafiq

Shakir

Abid

(2022). The impact of political instability, food prices, and crime rate on tourism: A Way toward sustainable tourism in Pakistan. Sustainability, 14(24), 16993. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416993

43.

Romão

Saito

(2017). A spatial analysis on the determinants of tourism performance in Japanese prefectures. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 1(1), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-017-0038-0

44.

Saha

J.-J.

Campbell

(2017). Does political and economic freedom matter for inbound tourism? A cross-national panel data estimation. Journal of Travel Research, 56(2), 221–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287515627028

45.

Santana-Gallego

Fourie

(2022). Tourism falls apart: How insecurity affects African tourism. Tourism Economics, 28(4), 995–1008. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354816620978128

46.

Sokhanvar

Çiftçioğlu

Javid

(2018). Another look at tourism- economic development nexus. Tourism Management Perspectives, 26, 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2018.03.002

47.

Tang

(2021). Trade facilitation promoted the inbound tourism efficiency in Japan. Tourism Management Perspectives, 38, 100805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2021.100805

48.

Tian

Yang

Jiang

(2022). Spatial spillover of transport improvement on tourism growth. Tourism Economics, 28(5), 1416–1432. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354816620982787

49.

Uzama

(2009). Marketing Japan's travel and tourism industry to international tourists. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 21(3), 356–365. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110910948341

50.

Vakhitova

Z. I.

Mawby

R. I.

Helps

Alston-Knox

C. L.

(2023). Tourism and crime: An exploratory study of burglary from tourist accommodation from the criminal opportunity perspective. Crime and Delinquency, 69(11), 2164–2193. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287221106962

51.

Viljoen

Saayman

(2019). Determinants influencing inbound arrivals to Africa. Tourism Economics, 25(6), 856–883. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354816618809840

52.

WTTC. (2020). Global economic impact & trends 2020. Author.

53.

Yang

C.-H.

Lin

H.-L.

Han

C.-C.

(2010). Analysis of international tourist arrivals in China: The role of world heritage sites. Tourism Management, 31(6), 827–837. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2009.08.008

54.

Yang

Fik

(2014). Spatial effects in regional tourism growth. Annals of Tourism Research, 46, 144–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2014.03.007

55.

Yang

Wong

K. K. F.

(2012). A spatial econometric approach to model spillover effects in tourism flows. Journal of Travel Research, 51(6), 768–778. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287512437855

56.

Yang

Wong

K. K. F.

(2013). Spatial distribution of tourist flows to China's cities. Tourism Geographies, 15(2), 338–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2012.675511

57.

Yang

Zhang

(2022). Foreign tourists’ experiences under air pollution: Evidence from big data. Tourism Management, 88, 104423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104423

58.

Zhang

Khan

S. A. R.

Kumar

Golpîra

Sharif

(2019). Is tourism really affected by logistical operations and environmental degradation? An empirical study from the perspective of Thailand. Journal of Cleaner Production, 227, 158–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.164

59.

Zhao

J. S.

Lawton

Longmire

(2010). An examination of the micro-level crime–fear of crime link. Crime and Delinquency, 61(1), 19–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128710386203

60.

Zou

Meng

(2020). Chinese tourists’ sense of safety: Perceptions of expected and experienced destination safety. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(15), 1886–1899. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2019.1681382

61.

Zou

(2022). Sense of safety toward tourism destinations: A social constructivist perspective. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 24, 100708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100708