TOURISM MULTIPLIER STUDIES - A MORE JUDICIOUS APPROACH

The concept of the multiplier is widely known and its use in the measurement of tourism's economic impact is routine. This article argues that greater caution should be exercised, however. There is confusion over different approaches to multiplier analysis, there are problems with the data used and attribution of tourist expenditure within a multiplier calculation is often either too wide or too narrow. Moreover using multiplier analysis encourages a narrow perspective on impact studies by obscuring real relationships with mathematical precision.