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ABSTRACT
In recent regional economic studies, resilience has emerged as a pivotal concept since the global financial and economic crisis of 2008, with research intensifying following the latest shock caused by the CO VID-19 pandemic. Consequently, there is a sustained interest in the literature concerning regional economic resilience, commonly defined as the capability of regional economies to resist, adapt to, and recover from shocks. The literature recognizes regional economic resilience as a multidimensional process encompassing phases such as resistance, recovery, renewal, and reorientation. This paper extends the exploration of tourism's role by investigating its impact on the economic recovery dimension of resilience, specifically in the context of the COVID-19 shock, using a sample of Croatian NUTS 3 regions. The dependent variable, regional economic recovery, is measured as the shift in gross value added (GVA) in 2022 compared to 2020. The primary independent variable is tourism, with the model controlling for common explanatory variables identified in the literature. Given their importance, spatial spillover effects are also considered. The Spatial Durbin Error Model (SDEM) is employed, and the results confirm the significance of tourism in the economic recovery process of Croatian NUTS 3 regions. These findings suggest that policymakers should leverage tourism to bolster economic recovery effectively.
Keywords: Croatian NUTS 3 Regions, Economic Recovery, Regional Economic Resilience, Tourism Demand, Spatial Durbin Error Model
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1. INTRODUCTION
Since the global financial crisis of 2008, resilience has become a prominent concept in regional and urban economic studies (Martin, 2021; Martin and Sunley, 2015). The interest in regional economic resilience has only increased following the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused substantial economic disruptions with varied impacts across different sectors, regions, and socio-economic groups (OECD, 2021). Di Pietro et al. (2021) emphasize the importance of examining the regional characteristics that influence economic resilience, a question with significant policy implications. The COVID-19 pandemic has also offered important insights for tourism scholars, prompting a re-evaluation of the industry's resilience (Gunter et al., 2022). The pandemic significantly affected the tourism sector due to social distancing, reduced international transport, and government lockdowns and travel restrictions (Sigala, 2020). In 2020, the travel and tourism sector's contribution to global GDP and employment saw a substantial decline. According to the World Travel and Tourism...