Does Political and Economic Freedom Matter for Inbound Tourism? A Cross-National Panel Data Estimation

The article examines the impact of political and economic freedom on inbound tourism for more than 110 countries during 1995–2012. Panel country fixed-effects techniques are utilized to examine the relationship after controlling for other factors that contribute to inbound tourism. The results show that civil liberties and economic freedom (among several other freedom measures) are positively and significantly associated with inbound tourism. Examination of the moderation effect reveals that civil liberties (economic freedom) tend to play a more influential role on inbound tourism when the level of economic freedom (civil liberties) is relatively low.