The economic and social effects of tourism activities and tourism policies. A survey of the computable general equilibrium (CGE) models approach

Until recently, the application of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models to the evaluation of the effects of tourism and tourism policies on the economic and social situation in a country has been very limited by the paucity of data. Over the recent years, the development of tourism satellite accounts (TSA) in many countries has led to a tremendous increase in the number of papers dealing with this question. This paper surveys this literature. The two first sections review the CGE modelling approach. The third section presents the TSA, and how tourism can be specified in a CGE model. The last section examines a series of studies on tourism economics using CGE models.