La contribución directa del turismo al crecimiento económico de Colombia: Análisis por ramas características del sector utilizando la Cuenta Satélite de Turismo - CST

One of the most revised and discussed topics on Tourism Economics are the way in which the tourism industry contributes to both growth and development of the economy of a country. In a seminal work, Ivanov and Webster (2007) came up with a methodology to measure the contribution of tourism to the economic growth that uses per capita GDP growth rate as an economic growth measure disaggregating it in the part generated by the touristic activities and that generated by other industries. Various authors have used the methodology suggested by Ivanov and Webster applying it to different countries. However, all of the works have considered as "tourism" what can be classified as the representative sector of this activity: hotels and restaurants. Currently, the development of the Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) have permitted to have a better accounting of the touristic activities in many countries, which leads to the need of new measures of the contribution that this sector has on economic growth. This work aims to measure the contribution that tourism has on economic growth by an expansion of the methodology suggested by Ivanov and Webster (2007) using TSA data for 2012- 2013. The expansion of this method allows the disaggregation of the touristic sector into its many characteristical branches and to measure the individual contribution that each of them has on the economic growth of Colombia, this with the purpose of observing in a more specific way the existing relationship between touristic activities and economic growth. The measurement results show that in 2013 Colombia grew 3,68%, of which 1,38% are directly related to the touristic sector. This result show clear evidence of the importance that the touristic sector has for the Colombian economy. Exploring the inside of the touristic sector, the characteristical branches that showed the most dynamism where food and beverages supply; ground transportation services and real estate services and housing rental, linking these activities 0,413%, 0,306% and 0,271% out of the 3.68% of Colombia's economic growth respectively, leading to conclude that these three branches of the sector were related the strongest to Colombia's growth process. On the other hand, the branches that provided the least to the economic growth where complementary services and auxiliary transport; associations and recreational services, cultural, sports and other non-market services; and, other non-characteristical products, linking only 0,074%, 0,057% y 0,005% of the total growth of the country. A result of special attention for this year is the obtained by the accommodation services since it is -along with the food and beverages- normally used as the proxy to measure the touristic activity. However the results show that this branch contributed negatively to the real economic growth of Colombia causing a reduction of -0,003% of the total growth which gives evidence that using the Hotels and Restaurants "sector" as a proxy variable of the touristic activity could considerably underestimate the direct effects that tourism has over the Colombian economy and, therefore, it could not to be the proper variable to measure the touristic activity of this country. This work, disaggregating into branches the contribution that the touristic sector has on Colombia's economic growth, has allowed a wider view of the already existing link between touristic activities and economic growth, an analysis that could help the authorities to formulate better touristic strategies that generate value chains with other productive sectors.