About some stylized facts on tourism -- A multidimensional scaling approach

Abstract

The tourism industry is characterized by some stylized facts, namely that the distance (from the place of residence to the touristic place), the characteristics of the tourist place and the time of year are relevant factors in determining the level of tourist activity. The combination of distance and geographical location makes multidimensional scaling a particularly appropriate methodology to test those stylized facts, for that taking into account the time of year. To illustrate, the case of Portugal is considered, which, in general, confirms the existence of those empirical facts.