TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring Diverse Sources of Linguistic Influence on International Tourism Flows
AU - Khalid, Usman
AU - Okafor, Luke Emeka
AU - Sanusi, Olajide Idris
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Uzair Ahmed for his assistance in this research. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study is supported by the United Arab Emirates University under the Start-Up grant (# 31B126).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - This study uses a gravity framework to explore the impact of diverse sources of linguistic influence on international tourism flows. The diverse sources of linguistic influence are captured using a common language index derived from a common native language, a common official language, and linguistic proximity. Our results reveal that linguistic factors as captured by common language index promote international tourism flows. The positive impact of linguistic ties on tourism flows is not only observed in the country-pairs that share an official language, it is also found in pairs that share unofficial native languages, that contain minority groups united by a common language, or that use closely related languages—all features captured by the language index. The analysis demonstrates that an index of common language is methodologically superior to other measures of linguistic similarity, including the dummy variable for a common official language that currently dominates the international tourism literature.
AB - This study uses a gravity framework to explore the impact of diverse sources of linguistic influence on international tourism flows. The diverse sources of linguistic influence are captured using a common language index derived from a common native language, a common official language, and linguistic proximity. Our results reveal that linguistic factors as captured by common language index promote international tourism flows. The positive impact of linguistic ties on tourism flows is not only observed in the country-pairs that share an official language, it is also found in pairs that share unofficial native languages, that contain minority groups united by a common language, or that use closely related languages—all features captured by the language index. The analysis demonstrates that an index of common language is methodologically superior to other measures of linguistic similarity, including the dummy variable for a common official language that currently dominates the international tourism literature.
KW - common language index
KW - common native language
KW - gravity model
KW - international tourism
KW - linguistic proximity
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U2 - 10.1177/0047287520988909
DO - 10.1177/0047287520988909
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100555375
SN - 0047-2875
VL - 61
SP - 696
EP - 714
JO - Journal of Travel Research
JF - Journal of Travel Research
IS - 3
ER -