Testing the tourism led growth hypothesis: A nonsensical exercise?

The Tourism-Led Growth Hypothesis (TLGH) posits a fundamental area of research, explored in hundreds of papers elucidating the relationship between tourism activity and economic growth. However, proposing the TLGH is not logical as the bidirectional relationship between tourism and economic growth is theoretically undeniable. In this paper, we advocate for a shift in the study perspective towards more ambitious hypotheses that extends the TLGH, which can be summarized in the Tourism as Optimal Choice Hypothesis (TOCH) and the Tourism-Led Genuine Economic Development Hypothesis (TLGDH). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]