This study examines the importance of tourism as a factor for regional economic development in Mainland Portugal, emphasizing the inter-regional spatial spillover effects. A spatial analysis of the main variables of the tourism sector revealed strong evidence of positive spatial autocorrelation across the municipalities of Portugal. A significant spatial clustering of these activities on coastal locations was identified, leading to the formation of hot spots in coastal regions and cold spots in inland regions. Furthermore, this work specifies spatial econometric models aiming to estimate the relevance of the tourism sector in regional economic development, on a municipal level. The econometric model, which highlights the role performed by interregional spatial spillovers, regresses the regional gross value added against a group of variables, which reflect the contribution of the tourism sector and, furthermore, control variables for the classic determinants of income, for the 278 municipalities of Portugal. The results show that tourism is a significant driver of regional economic development. Moreover, they revealed the presence of positive and significant inter-regional spillover effects, which strongly enhance tourism’s economic impact.

中文翻译：

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旅游业与区域发展：葡萄牙在市一级的空间计量经济学模型

这项研究考察了旅游业作为葡萄牙大陆区域经济发展因素的重要性，并强调了区域间空间溢出效应。对旅游业主要变量的空间分析显示，葡萄牙各城市的空间自相关呈正相关。确定了沿海地区这些活动的显着空间聚集，导致沿海地区形成热点，而内陆地区形成寒冷点。此外，这项工作还规定了空间计量经济学模型，旨在估计市一级旅游部门在区域经济发展中的相关性。计量经济学模型强调了区域间空间溢出效应的作用，将区域总增加值与一组变量进行了回归，这些数据反映了葡萄牙278个市镇旅游业的贡献，还反映了收入的经典决定因素的控制变量。结果表明，旅游业是区域经济发展的重要驱动力。此外，他们发现存在积极的和重要的区域间溢出效应，这大大增强了旅游业的经济影响。