Iranian Journal of Economic Studies. The Role of ICT Indices in Tourism Demand of Iran (The FMOLS Co-integrating Approach)

Transcription

1 Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies Journal homepage: ijes.shirazu.ac.ir The Role of ICT Indices in Tourism Demand of Iran (The FMOLS Co-inegraing Approach) Majid Feshari Faculy of Economics, Kharazmi Universiy, Tehran, Iran. Aricle Hisory Received dae: 26 Sepember 2016 Revised dae: 14 Ocober 2017 Acceped dae: 13 November 2017 Available online: 29 November 2017 JEL Classificaion: C22 E14 E22 Keywords: ICT indices Tourism demand FMOLS co-inegraing Absrac Informaion and Communicaion Technology (ICT) is one of he main deerminans of E-commerce indusry such as ourism secor in developing counries like Iran. For his reason, he main purpose of his paper was o invesigae he shor-run and longrun relaionships beween ICT indices such as inerne users, governmen expendiures on ICT o he GDP and mobile cellular subscripion in Iranian economy during he period 1994 o The empirical model was esimaed by applying Fully Modified Ordinary Leas Square (FMOLS) co-inegraing mehod as a sophisicaed economeric mehodology. The resuls of he empirical model indicaed ha here was a long-run relaionship beween ICT indices and ourism demand indicaors like he number of ouris arrival in Iran. Moreover, he oher explanaory variables such as living cos, real exchange rae and behavioral habi had negaive and posiive effecs on he ourism demand respecively. The invesmen of governmen in ICT indices such as improving he share of ICT expendiures in GDP and enhancing he ICT qualiy are he imporan policy implicaions of his sudy. o he economic policy makers 1. Inroducion Tourism indusry, as one of he mos imporan indusries in he world, plays a major role in improving he economic growh, job creaion and susainable developmen of counries and has been considered by expers, managers and economic planners of differen counries. Saisical sudies show ha he economic impac of his indusry is significan enough o accoun for 9% of global GDP. In he new age, Informaion and Communicaion Technology (ICT) has been considered wih regard o performance enhancemen, speed of operaion and cos reducion in various areas. One of hese secors is he ourism indusry. This secor includes abou 35% of world rade in he services secor and consiues abou 5-10% of GDP in differen groups of counries. Therefore, ourism is one of he core bases of an economy and many counries aemp o improve heir economic siuaion by focusing on ourism as a poenial source of majid.feshari@gmail.com DOI: /ijes , Shiraz Universiy, All righ reserved

2 210 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, economic enhancemen. One of he main branches of he ourism indusry is E-ourism which is associaed wih ICT indices. The role of ICT in companies includes is uilizaion for managemen goals, boh inernally and exernally. ICT may help economic secors improve heir compeiive saus by speeding up heir inernal processes and informaion exchange. I helps in reducing he economic coss and increasing he qualiy of processes. However, o benefi from ICT, he relaive advanage of ICT has o mach an organizaion s needs, values and objecives. ICT has enabled new disribuion channels, hus causing a new business environmen. Is ools have simplified business dealing in he indusry hrough neworking wih oher rading parners, disribuion of produc services and providing informaion o consumers across he sphere. On he oher hand, consumers usually obain he essenial informaion o plan heir journey and ravels online; hus making informaion he key specificaion in he ourism secor. In addiion, ourism needs ICT o carry ou many sraegies such as fulfilling he inegraion of various secors like he echnical infrasrucure, human infrasrucure which conains skilled labor, vision and managemen, subsides for inerne service providers, designing an inegraed framework for online adverisemen or official endorsemen for online markeing, mainenance and updaing websies, and esablishing elecronic linkages beween all relaed secors. Thus, he sudy of relaions beween ourism secor and ICT is momenous in he ourism lieraure. Despie he presence of privileged ourism poenial in Iran, due o lack of proper markeing and adverising environmen, ICT sill has limied noiceable share in he ourism secor. Whereas, developing counries such as Malaysia and he Unied Arab Emiraes wih invesmen on e-ourism, have creaed many opporuniies for heir counry. Therefore, o change he curren siuaion and improve is sraegic posiion in he conex of ourism, ICT has been used. In his regard, some effecive measures have been aken in he field of ICT, especially on he Inerne for giving informaion and adverising abou is ouris aracions and faciliies and welfare services. However, hese aciviies sill lack he necessary uniy and inegriy for he field of elecronic ourism o find he growing needs and requiremens. As such, improving he siuaion needs some fundamenal changes in policies, programs and acions. Mihajlovic (2012), Karimidizboni and Rigani (2007), and Buhalis and Deimezi (2003) indicaed ha here is a posiive correlaion beween ourism demand and e-ourism. Moreover, by reviewing is heoreical base, i can be saed ha ICT poenially reduces he ransacion and operaional coss in he desinaion counry. The previous empirical sudies in developing counries like Iran revealed ha he relaionship beween ICT indices and inernaional ourism has no ye been considered empirically. Hence, o fill his gap, his paper aims o idenify he long-run relaionship beween ICT indices and ourism demand in Iran over

3 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, he period of 1994 o To achieve his objecive, he empirical model has been specified on he base of heoreical framework and esimaed by Fully Modified Ordinary Leas Square (FMOLS) as a co-inegraing echnique. The res of his aricle has been arranged as follows: The lieraure review is presened in secion 2, followed by he model explanaion and daa sources in secion 3. In secion 4, he empirical findings are analyzed and he final secion is dedicaed o concluding remarks and policy implicaions. 2. Lieraure Review The use of informaion echnology by he ourism indusry began in he early 1970s (Collins and Cobanoylu, 2008) and since hen ICT has become he mos impressive ool in ourism and hospialiy markeing. Nowadays, ICTs pervades all aspecs of he ourism indusry and plays a criical role in ourism organizaions and desinaions compeiiveness as well as he enire indusry as a whole. According o Grazer e al. (2007), using ICT in he ourism indusry is one of he mos convenien ways of changing his secor. Doulien e al. (2002) saed ha one of he mos efficien ools in culivaing and disribuing ourism is he Inerne, and Sipanu (1993) believed ha echnology has srongly improved ourism performances. The use of ICT in ourism can be divided ino hree areas, viz; inernal neworks (Inerne), exernal neworks (Exrane) and he Inerne. The applicaion of ICT in he inernal neworks of he ourism secor increases efficiency and effeciveness and is applied in differen pars of he company. On he oher hand, he use of ICT in local and Inerne neworks has led o a powerful correlaion beween he various aciviies of acing ourism unis; also, he use of ICT ools in he resource managemen sysem of he global disribuion, he Desinaion Managemen (DMS) in he aviaion indusry, and in hoels and ravel services is palmae. The ICT ool has led o a rend change in ourism along wih creaion of new sraegic and managerial mechanisms in his secor. One of he mos imporan uses of ICT in corporaions has been srenghening of horizonal and verical inegraion and incremen of economies o scale in small and medium-sized enerprises (SMEs). Elecronic ourism (e-ourism) is he applicaion of new echnologies in wo dimensions of ourism: supply and demand, in which he services needed by ouriss, he fields of markeing and ourism purposes are provided. Hence, ouriss uilize informaion and communicaion echnologies o ascerain ourism objecives and heir siuaion in demand side, and in he framework of heir moives. Meanwhile, by using he Inerne in he field of ourism specialized plans and in he framework of recognizing vacaion ime, along wih responding o he needs of ouriss, ravel agencies have been markeing ourism for various purposes. One of he main changes from e-ourism in view of ourism supply includes he formaion of DMO's. These organizaions provide ouriss wih a diversiy of elecronic services in he conex of ourism, allowing hem o search and plan a rip. The duies of hese organizaions include managemen of

4 212 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, ourism resources, planning for ourism aciviies, promoion and markeing, raining of saff and he provision of services for ouriss. According o he naure of ourism, he uilizaion of informaion and communicaion echnology can be useful in improving he efficiency of delivery of services and ransacions, as well as predicing he opporuniy o gain a wide and diverse range of experiences in various fields of ourism. In he global field, ICT developmen has had a large impac on ourism and ravel organizaions, and is sill changing he srucure and processes. Thus, he main objecive of e-ourism is o provide appropriae opporuniies such as welfare, ravel securiy and cos reducion for foreign ouriss. In his regard, some of he main benefis or advanages of elecronic ourism include: I provides high qualiy inerne services for ouriss. I improves he relaions of organizaions wih he ourism secor. I manages conrols and guides ouriss. I saves ime and coss for ouriss. I prepares he bes and suiable educaional channels for ouriss. I solves he possible problems of he ourism secor and direcs relaionship wih ouriss. In he conex of empirical sudies, Albrech and Zemke (1985) saed ha e-compliance is anoher advanage of ICT in ourism demand. I gives rise o cusomer loyaly and ensures ha cusomers are more saisfied. Moharrer (2002) invesigaed he relaions beween ICT and he ourism secor in Pakisan during The resuls indicaed ha he expansion of he worldwide web and ICT indices have posiive and significan impacs on he ouriss aracion o he counry of Pakisan. Jeong e al. (2003) repored a large increase in he number of cusomers who make reservaions direcly from hoel websies and his influences cusomer saisfacion. In anoher sudy, Mills and Law (2004) assered ha he Inerne has changed ouris behavior dramaically. Law and Jogaranam (2005) furher concluded ha ICT is capable of ransforming he ourism naure and hospialiy producs, business and compeiion. The resuls of heir sudy showed ha ICT can change he srucure of he ourism indusry and affec business and compeiion in he ourism secor. Buhalis and Law (2008) presened a comprehensive review on he relaionship beween ICT and ourism and analyzed previous sudies in his conex. They idenified hree main hemes which include: Cusomers and demand dimensions, echnological innovaion and indusry funcions. I has been noiced ha he effec of ICT on cusomer behavior is one of he main fields; also, researchers have saed ha he Inerne is one of he mos effecive echnologies ha have changed ravelers behavior. Maria and Vasilis (2009) invesigaed he growh of he e-ourism secor in he case of Medierranean counries and showed ha he increase of he e-ourism secor depended on he increase in ourism demand and inerne influence. Ekanayake and Long (2012) invesigaed he relaions beween ourism developmen and

5 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, economic growh in developing counries by using Granger causaliy ess in a mulivariae model and he annual ime series daa during The resuls of heir sudy suggesed ha governmens of developing counries should focus on economic policies o promoe ourism as a poenial source of economic growh. Ramos and Rodrigues (2013) explored he imporance of ICT for ourism demand in developing counries during 1975 o 2010, and concluded from heir empirical findings ha inerne users and he raio of governmen expendiures in ICT o GDP as proxies for ICT had posiive and significan effecs on he ourism demand in hese counries. Behapudi (2016) invesigaed he effec of ICT on he ourism indusry in India during For his, a sample of 112 managers of ourism, ravel and hospialiy enerprises in India have been seleced. The empirical findings showed ha all he ICT indices have posiive and significan impacs on ouris arrival o India. Rajamohamed (2016), by applying inferenial saisics mehod and a sample of 138 ravel firms, concluded ha ICT has a posiive and significan effec on ourism in Thailand. Wahab (2017) sudied he impac of ICT on ourism demand in India during he period and concluded ha whereas IT helped in reducing he cos incurred in he disseminaion of knowledge, i also decreased he inefficiencies relaed o he spread of informaion. Thirdly, IT has assised in he reducion of barriers affeced by disance and ime. By employing ICT usage paerns, Zaidan (2017) analyzed he impac of ICT on small and medium enerprises of Middle Easern counries, engaged in ourism, during The resuls of his sudy showed ha he accessibiliy of SMEs o he inerne and oher communicaion ools has posiive influence on he ourism demand in hese counries. Bekeshi and Bekeshi (2017) invesigaed he influence of ICT indices on he level of he ourism secor in Albania during 2015 and indicaed from he empirical evidence ha wih increase in ICT qualiy and srucure improvemen, he ourism demand in his counry will increase. In he case of Iran, i can be argued ha none of he sudies have explored he shor and long-run nexus beween ICT and ourism. However, in closer and similar sudies Sanayiand (2012) aemped o survey and inroduce he mos imporan effecs of ICT on he 4Ps (price, place, producion and promoion) as he basis of markeing mix and concluded ha i is possible o creae a beer way o uilize he inerne and elecronic markeing in ourism hrough ICT. Mamaghani (2009) claimed ha ravel agencies which successfully use inerne as a disribuion channel has an easier access o global marke, and also have o adap heir websies and online booking for overall experiences and expecaions of ouriss. In addiion, fuure ravel agencies will have o keep up wih compeing desinaions ha offer user-friendly aciviies, values and convenience. By reviewing he empirical sudies on he relaionship beween ICT and Iranian ourism demand, i is revealed ha none of he previous sudies have examined he relaionship beween hese wo variables. Hence, he major conribuion of his paper is o esimae he long-run relaions beween ICT

6 214 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, indices and ouris arrivals as a represenaive for ourism demand in Iran by applying FMOLS approach. By employing he ime varying approach (TVP), Mohammadzadeh e al. (2010) analyzed he inernaional ourism demand for Iran using daa from They found ha world income, ase and habi have posiive effecs while he cos of living in he counry of origin has a negaive and significan effec on he inernaional ourism of Iran. In anoher sudy, Mohammadzadeh e al. (2010) esimaed he ourism demand funcion for Iran by using TVP while selecing India, Turkey and Pakisan as he origin counries for raveling o Iran. The empirical resuls indicaed ha income and habi have posiive impacs whereas he cos of living has a negaive impac on he inernaional ourism of Iran. Moreover, he number of medical ouriss who wan o ravel o Iran from Turkey is more han hose of Pakisan and India. In anoher sudy, Taghvaei e al. (2013) invesigaed he effecs of ICT on ourism planning in Shiraz ciy over he period of and indicaed ha accessibiliy o ICT ools has a posiive and significan influence on ouris's saisfacion. Hashemi e al. (2014), by analyzing he main deerminans of ourism planning in Iran, concluded ha managemen weakness and shorage of informaion regarding e-ourism are he main obsacles o ourism developmen in Iran. Also, hrough inferenial saisics, Safaeepour e al. (2015) analyzed he influence of ICT on he ouris arrivals in Shiraz ciy during 2014 and showed ha he correlaion beween ICT indices and E-ourism is Moreover, he use of ICT indices in ourism affairs is no noiceable. By surveying he imporan empirical sudies on he relaionship beween ICT and inernaional ourism in Iran, i was revealed ha none of he previous researches have examined he relaions beween hese wo variables. Hence, he main conribuion of his paper is o esimae he shor-erm and long-run relaions among ICT indices and ourism demand in Iran by applying he Toda- Yamamoo and FMOLS approaches. 3. Model Specificaion and Daa Sources In he presen sudy, an adjused mehod of he shor-erm Granger causaliy es suggesed by Toda and Yamamoo (1995) and he Fully Modified Leas Square was used for invesigaing he shor and long-run relaions among ICT indices and inernaional ourism for he Iranian economy. Toda and Yamamoo's (1995) mehodology is based on he augmened vecor of he auo regressive model and a Wald es saisic ha asympoically has a chi square disribuion. In his approach, he augmened (k+dmax) is he order of he esimaed VAR model, where k is he opimal lag lengh of he sysem ha can be chosen by applying informaion crieria such as AIC and SC wih respec o he sample size and is characerisics; dmax is he maximum order of saionary variables. One of he disincive and imporan feaures of Toda and Yamamoo's

7 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, causaliy es is ha i can be applied when here are no co-inegraion relaions among variables and does no require any informaion and knowledge of he saionary siuaions and properies of he equaions (Akcay, 2014). The Toda- Yamamoo model can be defined as following bi-variae VAR equaions:,,, (1), In he above formula, x1 and x2 are he inernaional ourism and ICT indices (inerne users, mobile cellular line and raio of governmen expendiures in ICT o oal governmen expendiures), respecively. Afer invesigaing he shor-run causaliy es beween ICT and inernaional ourism, he FMOLS approach was used for esimaing he long-run relaionship beween ICT indicaors and he number of ouris arrivals. The FMOLS co-inegraion approach originaed by Phillips and Hansen (1990), provides opimal esimaes of co-inegraing equaions and adjuss leas squares o define he serial correlaion effecs and for endogeneiy in he regressors ha appear from he exisence of co-inegraing relaions. The FMOLS esimaor uilizes iniial esimaes of he symmeric and one-sided long-run covariance marices of error erms. For illusraing he FMOLS mehod, consider a mulivariae regression model: y 0 1 x u (2) In he above equaion, y represens he dependen variable while x is he ( K 1) vecor of covariaes. Moreover, assume x w ; where is a ( K 1 ) vecor of drif parameers and w is a ( K 1) vecor of saionary variables. Wih definiion of he consisen esimaion of u and w as ˆ ( uˆ, wˆ ), he long-run variance covariance of ˆ ( V ) isv ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ. In his formula, T ˆ 1 ˆ ˆ, ˆ w s m) ˆ s ˆ 1 (, ; s T ˆ ˆ T 1 s T 2 m s1 s 1 and w(s,m) is he lag curailmen window. Wih respec o he above formula, he FMOLS esimaor has been defined as: ˆ 1 ( W W ) ( W y ˆ * ) TDZˆ B FMOLS Where, W ( k) is a marix of all covariaes conaining a consan, D represens he deerminisic rend regressors, yˆ * y vˆ wˆ is adjused dependen variable and Zˆ ( x, D) is he vecor of explanaory and deerminisic rend variables. If he error erm gained hrough FMOLS proves saionary, hen y and x (3)

8 216 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, variables in Equaion (2) are co-inegraed. The saionary naure of he error erm can be examined by any classical uni roo ess such as Augmened Dickey Fuller and Philips-Perron. In his paper, he dependen variable has been defined as he number of oal ouris arrivals o he Iran (TOUR) and variables of ICT indicaors such as inerne users (IU), mobile cellular subscripion (per 100 people) (MC) and raio of governmen expendiures in ICT o GDP (ICTE); real exchange rae (RER) is compued as he produc of nominal exchange rae in raio of producer price index in USA and consumer price index in Iran. The CPI index and behavioral habi (firs order lag of dependen variable) have been considered as explanaory variables. The annual ime series daa ses for all he variables were colleced from World Bank indicaors (WDI) from 1994 o Empirical Findings To examine he saionary saus of variables, he ADF and PP uni roo ess were conduced and repored in Table 1. Afer his sep, he resuls of shor-erm causaliy and long-run esimaion of co-inegraing vecor are presened in Tables 2 and 3. The shor-run causaliy es was conduced by he Toda- Yamamoo (1995) approach. In his mehod, he firs sep is o deermine he order of saionary variables (dmax). For his purpose, i is necessary ha classicical and firs generaion saionary ess such as he Augmened Dickey- Fuller and Philips-Perron be applied. Table 1. The Resuls of ADF and PP saionary Tess Variable ADF Saisics PP Saisics Consan Consan and Trend Consan Consan and Trend TOUR * * * * IU ** ** ** ** MC * * * * ICTE * ** 2.25 ** ** CPI ** ** ** ** RER * * * * Noe: * and** indicae ha he variable is saionary in he firs difference and levels I (1) and I (0), respecively. Source: Auhor Compuaions As seen in Table 1, he resuls of ADF and PP uni roo ess revealed ha TOUR, MC and RER are saionary wih firs difference or I(1) and oher 1. Because o he limied access o he ICT indices for Iran, he period of his paper has been consrained o he

9 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, explanaory variables (CPI and IU) are inegraed in level I(0). The nex sep in Toda-Yamamoo causaliy es is o deermine he opimal lag lengh (k), wih respec o he size of he sample, using he SC Informaion Crieria. The resuls showed ha he opimal lag lengh is k=1. Afer examining he saionary order of variables and finding he opimal lag by informaion crierion saisics, i was possible o conduc he Toda-Yamamoo causaliy es. The resuls of his es are repored in Table Table2. The Resuls of he Toda-Yamamoo (TY) Causaliy Tes From IU o TOUR From MC o TOUR From ICTE o TOUR 2 2 Saisics Prob Saisics Prob Saisics Prob From TOUR o IU From TOUR o MC From TOUR o ICTE 2 2 Saisics Prob Saisics Prob Saisics Prob Source: Auhor Compuaions As can be seen from Table 2, he resuls of TY causaliy es indicaed ha here was unilaeral causaliy from he inerne users, mobile cellular subscripion and share of ICT expendiures o he number of ouris arrivals a 5% significance level. Therefore, here was a unidirecional causaliy from all he indicaors of ICT o ouris arrivals for Iran during 1994 o To esimae he long-run nexus among ICT indices and inernaional ourism demand, he FMOLS approach was used as a convenien co-inegraing mehod in small samples. The co-inegraing equaion was esimaed by inclusion of 1 lags and leads in he esimaed equaion. The resul of model esimaion is repored in Table 3. The resuls of model esimaion showed ha all ICT indices like IU, MC and ICTE in hese siuaions had posiive and significan impacs on ouris arrival as a proper proxy for ourism developmen. The firs lag in ouris arrival as a represenaion for behavioral habi had posiive and significan influence on he ouris arrival in he curren year. Hence, he choice of desinaion counry (Iran) in previous periods has led o increase in foreign ouris arrivals. Real exchange rae as a proxy for compeiive degree index has a posiive and significan impac on ouris arrival. In oher words, wih increase in real exchange rae, he real purchasing power of foreign ouriss o choice and deparure from Iran will increase. The CPI index as a proxy for living cos in he desinaion counry has negaive and significan effecs on ourism demand. Thus, i can be argued ha he increase of CPI in Iran has led o increase in deparure cos o he desinaion counry such as Iran and as a resul o decrease in ouris arrival. So, i is necessary o es he sabiliy of esimaed coefficiens by Hansen es saisic whose resuls are displayed in Table 4.

10 218 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, Table 3. FMOLS Esimaes of he Co-inegraing Equaion ICT Indices Explanaory Variables Coefficien -Saisics Prob C IU IU RER TOUR(-1) CPI , R , Long-run Variance=0.46 R C MC MC RER TOUR(-1) CPI , R , Long-run Variance=0.73 R C ICTE ICTE RER TOUR(-1) CPI , R , Long-run Variance=0.89 R Source: Auhor Compuaions Table 4. Hansen Parameer Insabiliy Tes LC Saisics Sochasic Trends Prob Source: Auhor Compuaions The resuls of Hansen parameer insabiliy showed ha he null hypohesis (parameer sabiliy) has been acceped and esimaed coefficiens were sable during 1976 o In he las sep, he resuls of normaliy es for residuals are presened in Table 5. Table 5. The Resuls of Residuals Normaliy Tes Jarque- Bera Saisics Prob Source: Auhor Compuaions The resuls of normaliy es for he long-run residuals showed ha he null hypohesis has no been rejeced; a 5% significance level, he residuals followed he normal disribuion in he long-run. 5. Concluding Remarks and Policy Implicaions The presen research primarily analyzed he shor-erm and long-run nexus among indicaors of ICT and he number of ouris arrivals as a proxy for inernaional ourism demand in he Iranian economy during 1994 o For

11 Feshari, Iranian Journal of Economic Sudies, 5(2) 2016, his purpose, he Toda-Yamamoo and FMOLS approaches were used for invesigaing and examining he shor-erm causaliy and long-run relaionships among ICT indices and ouris arrivals. The empirical findings of TY causaliy es suggesed he exisence of a unidirecional causaliy from he mobile cellular and ICT expendiures o he inernaional ourism demand; however, no causaliy from inernaional ourism o any of he indicaors of informaion and communicaion echnology was found. Moreover, he resuls of FMOLS approach indicaed ha in he long-run, all indicaors of ICT such as inerne users, mobile cellular subscripion and ICT expendiures had posiive effecs, while a dummy variable had negaive and significan effecs on he inernaional ourism of Iran over he period of sudy. Similarly, real exchange rae and behavioral habi had posiive and significan influences on ouris arrival in Iran. Hence, an increase in real exchange rae can lead o an improvemen in he degree of compeiiveness and decrease he living cos in he desinaion counry, hereby conribuing o he growh of he ourism secor. Therefore, he conrol of domesic price level can furher inspire foreign ouriss o choose Iran as he bes opion for ravel. The resuls of his sudy are accompanied wih he heoreical base and imporan empirical sudies such as Akcay (2014), Smih and e al. (2011), Connell (2006) and Behapudi (2016). I is argued ha promoing and raising he e-readiness of individuals and he sociey via policies ha increase access o ICT ools and skills o use hem is needed in he conex of ourism. However, generally elecronic ourism is sill relaively a passive sense o ouriss now engaging in culural ourism. Currenly, he use of ICT in he ourism secor is relaively low and is confined o receiving informaion on ourism. Based on he main resuls of his research, i can be concluded ha he developmen of he ICT secor has posiive effecs on inernaional ourism demand. Therefore, he main policy implicaion of his sudy is ha he economic policy makers should adop appropriae policies for increasing ICT expendiures and aracing more inernaional ouriss. Hence, improving he ICT srucures can provide developmen of he ourism secor in Iranian economy. Moreover, he creaion of daa bank for he ourism secor can lead o increase in ourism revenue and as a resul, improvemen of economic growh. On he oher hand, encouraging organizaions o provide elecronic services hrough ICT is he oher policy implicaion recommended for ourism policy makers.

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