Analysis of Spillover Effects of Crisis in Conflict-Ridden Regions on Top Tourism Destinations

Different studies on tourism showed that negative cases in the region have a significant negative impact on the tourism industry of that region. Consequently, it may also have positive or negative spillover effects on other regions and tourist destinations. The consequences of the Arab Spring uprising started at the end of 2010 had a negative impact on the tourism industry in the Middle East following the shocks of 2008 financial crisis. The aim of this article is to analyze the spillover effects of the crisis in conflict-ridden areas on top tourist destinations and provide a descriptive analysis of the tourism indicators over the period from 2005 to 2015. The data of main tourism indicator of the world’s top tourist destinations was used to present the annual percentage growth rates for illustrating the effects spillover from the period of conflicts. The results show that there is similar growth rate pattern of top tourist destinations and linear trend after the conflicts started. We also used the cluster analysis to illustrate if the spillover effect patterns depend on the distance from the conflict-ridden regions.