Quantifying the Asymmetric Effects of Policy Stringency on Tourism: The Case of COVID-19 Pandemic

Despite the growing body of literature on policies and their effects, few studies have examined the asymmetric effect of public policies at varying levels of stringency on the tourism industry. Using policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a case, this study quantifies the non-linear and asymmetric effects of public policies by examining the impacts of various levels of containment policy stringency on tourism recovery among 115 countries/regions internationally. Our findings show that containment policies impeded global tourism recovery, as expected. However, the negative impact appeared disproportionately larger when the policy measures were more stringent. The results contribute to the tourism policy literature and complements previous studies by providing a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of public policies on tourism.