COVID-19 and tourism industry: An investigation of spatial dependence in Europe

The tourism industry suffered the worst impact due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case, the Europe is the region whose tourism industry has been hardest hit globally. This study aims to analyze the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the tourism industry in the Europe involving 19 countries with a period of about 514 days (early March 2020 to late July 2021) using spatial econometric analysis techniques. The data used was obtained from the European Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (ECDC) and several data providers that can be accessed online. The Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) with fixed effects was selected as the best spatial panel model that shows the spatial dependence among European countries on the tourism industry in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is significant evidence of indirect effects indicating spatial spillovers in almost all independent variables in the model.