Estimating the impact of cruise tourism through regional input-output tables

In this paper we estimate the economic impact of cruise tourism with an application to the Port of Cartagena, Spain. As a novelty, we build on a newly available regional input-output (IO) framework. This allows us to compute the indirect and induced effects of cruise ship visits, which adds to the direct effects obtained from survey data. Results identify the total impact in terms of employment, wages, gross operating surplus and value added. Methodologically, the use of regional IO tables improves the accuracy of previous methodologies building on country IO Tables. Results of the investigation provide important policy recommendations to the public and private stakeholders in order to manage this rising activity.