Economic Impact Studies: Relating The Positive And Negative Impacts To Tourism Development

Abstract

This article is the sixth in a series prepared by the U. S. Department of Commerce Task Force on Accountability Research to examine the issues of accountability and evaluation in travel research. An important issue in any tourism development effort is the estimation of total economic impact of the programs conducted by state and local tourism offices as well as by the private sector. This article focuses on the increasing need to conduct detailed economic impact studies and discusses some of the basic approaches to measuring both the positive and negative economic impacts.