Estimating tourism contribution to Macedonian economy

In the past few years, tourism became an emerging sector in Macedonia. This research intends to investigate and estimate the impact of several factors that may be important in explaining tourism contribution to Macedonian economy. Moreover, this empirical study attempts to discover the relationship and the level of significance of several commonly applied variables representing tourism contribution. In this line, the investigation identifies the impacts of capital investment, foreign tourist arrivals and total overnights over the total travel and tourism contribution to GDP. For that purpose, the regression makes estimations by using the simple ordinary least squares (OLS) method. The data set covers the period 1993-2012. The research findings reveal modest contribution of tourism towards economic development in Macedonia. Therefore, the paper underscores the necessity for continuous analysis of tourism direct economic impacts as an important consideration for strengthening national economy.