THE EFFECTS OF TOURISM REVENUES ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE CONTEXT OF NEO-CLASSICAL GROWTH MODEL: IN THE CASE OF TURKEY

The aim of this study is to analyses the relationship between tourism and gross domestic product in the context of the Neo-classical growth model in the period after 1980 when Turkey adopted as an export-led growth model. İn this paper, gross domestic product, gross fixed capital formation and tourism revenues between the years 1980-2014 were used. Co-integration between series was tested using the Johansen co-integration technique. This test concluded that the series are co-integrated. Additionally the Granger causality test was used to investigate the causality between tourism and economic growth. As a result of this test, unidirectional causality running from tourism to economic growth was determined. As a developing country, this result shows that the tourism sector plays an important role on Turkey’s attempts to close the gap with developed countries by financing gross fixed capital formation.