The effects of earthquakes on tourism: Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

Turkey has been hit by many earthquakes during the last century. A 7.4 earthquake which lasted for 45 seconds struck the Marmara Region on 17 August 1999 at 3:02 am. In addition to its destructive effects such as property losses and personal injuries, it also had negative effects on the tourism industry. Cancellation of package tours for foreign tourists in Turkey had a negative impact on travel agencies, hotels and airlines. The purpose of the present study is to outline the economic impact of the 1999 Earthquake on tourist flows. For this purpose, an event study was performed to evaluate the amount of loss between August 1998 and August 2001 due to the drop in the tourism industry. Additionally, CUSUM and CUSUMSQ test, multiple linear regression (MLR) model and prediction models were employed to identify the patterns of structural change. The results show that the number of tourists decreased by about 20% following the earthquake. The results of the CUSUM and CUSUMSQ estimation analysis based on the control variables suggest that if there had been no earthquakes, the number of future tourists would have been approximately 8% higher than the actual number of tourists who visited Turkey at that time.