Unconditional quantile regression and tourism expenditure: the case of the Canary Islands

Abstract

This article explores the spending patterns of tourists by market segments of expenditure distribution. We focus on the case of the Canary Islands, that is, a region that is one of the main destinations in the European tourism market, and distinguish between expenditure at origin and expenditure at destination. To do this, we use unconditional quantile regression (QR), which is more appropriate than conditional QR for the interpretation of coefficients. The results suggest that spending behaviour is heterogeneous among quantiles of expenditure in terms of income, price, level of loyalty and hotel accommodation effects. Furthermore, some differences arise between the pattern of expenditure at origin and the one at destination, and among items of expenditure at destination.