Contribution of Tourism Revenue to the Economic Growth of Iraq

الملخص

Iraq has a great potential to attract a large number of tourists. Iraq should be given the opportunity to extensively develop the tourism sector, and this process will help to diversify the national economy of Iraq. Iraq is one of the most important oil-exporting countries in the world, and while its oil revenues dominate the overall economic activities of the country, there has been less attention given to the development of the tourism industry. This paper attempts to analyze co- integration between tourism growth and economic growth. To achieve this goal, this study adopts the Co- integration method to estimate the levels of relationship, and the secondary data from 1980 to 2010 was used. The empirical result shows that political and security instability had negative effects on the tourism revenue and economic growth. This study also found that tourism revenue had a positive effect on gross domestic product (GDP), but it had a smaller positive effect, compared to tourism investment. Government should support the 2015 strategic plan, which will help to increase tourism revenue by increasing the number of tourist arrivals, and encourage tourists to stay longer. Therefore, tourism policies in Iraq should try to increase tourism revenue by improving and providing necessary services to satisfy inbound tourists.

 Keywords: Tourism Revenue, Tourism Investment, Economic Growth, Economic Analysis, Co-integration Method, Iraq.