Air Transport Resilience, Tourism and Its Impact on Economic Growth

Abstract

The aims of this study are to evaluate the influence of air transport and tourism on economic growth in selected Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore in the period 1970 to 2021. The study applies the ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects (FEM), and random effects (REM), especially to robustness test of the research results by deploying the DOLS, and IV-GMM regression for endogeneity and autocorrelation analysis. The research results confirmed that air transport has a significant and positive impact on economic growth, especially because the positive impact increased in normal economic conditions and decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, if the air transport recovers, it is likely to boost economic development. In addition, there is no impact of tourism on economic growth. The research results also confirmed the positive impact of foreign direct investment and international trade on the economic growth of Southeast Asian countries; however, there is a negative impact of renewable energy consumption on economic growth.