Forecasting tourism demand in Chile: Regional analysis using the Seasonal Autoregressive Model

Abstract

This paper presents Chilean tourism demand describing its behavior for both the country and each of its regions, the analyzed period comprises 2014:01 to 2019:02. The seasonal autoregressive model (SARIMA) process was used to model the series growing dynamics. Results show that best-fitting models capture nonlinear growth, seasonal patterns, and series volatility, and make it possible to describe not so obvious behaviors, such as the seasonal process order or long-term growth trends. From a public policy point of view, this provides relevant information for decision-makers to manage touristic services and infrastructure in a better way. Regional and countries’ forecasted demand presents a low error percentage, less than 2%, though in some regions this value is underestimated overestimated in others.