*2.1. International Tourism and Income*

Previous research suggested that income, prices, and the currency rate have a considerable effect on tourist inflow, but there is significant variation in the degree of influence between variables. Many factors can explain this. According to Peng et al. (2015), there is a large spread in the income elasticity depending on the destination, country of origin, season, and type of holiday. Income in the origin country seems to be a dominant variable in explaining the level of international tourism. Sanchez-Rivero and Pulido-Fernández (2020) suggested that the average income elasticity of visitors crossing international borders is substantially higher than 1.0 (their estimate was just over 2.0). If this is the case, an increase of one percent will cause the demand for tourist travel to rise far beyond one percent. Economic theory refers to this as a luxury good. There may be wide gaps for the same destination depending on the country of origin, as well as large differences within the same country of origin depending on the destination. Due to a lower income level, income elasticity tends to be higher for visitors from countries with low GDP per capita compared to countries with high GDP per capita. There is limited holiday time, and the choice of destination can be sensitive to changes in some important variables. Crouch (1996) reported an income elasticity of 1.5 for international tourism. Recent research reports suggest that income elasticity is between 1.0 and 2.0, but with significant variations Kumar and Kumar (2020); Ongan et al. (2017); Sanchez-Rivero and Pulido-Fernández (2020); however, Jensen (1998) pointed out that the income elasticity of foreign visitors is considerably higher than that of domestic tourist visitors.
