Tourism in a remote Nordic region: Vat, internet, oil, English, distance, Hofstede, and Christianity

Abstract

What are the determinants of tourism when treated as exports in national accounts? Is tourism sensitive to value-added taxation, Internet access, oil, English, Christianity, and regional trade agreements? Impact of these factors on tourism are tested, as well as the potential effects of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions; these are Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of uncertainty, individualism, power distance, masculinity, and orientation. The relationship between variables in the time period of 2003–2016 is analysed in the current research. The research shows estimate for tourism in logarithms to capture the marginal effects of various factors on tourism. The current research also obtains and tests international values for these factors empirically. The research seeks to answer if these factors affect the willingness of foreign tourists to visit.