WHETHER A SHOCK HAS A TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT EFFECT ON VISITOR ARRIVALS IN SINGAPORE

Testing for the nonstationarity hypothesis is important in tourism research. If a visitor arrivals series is nonstationary, the occurrence of a shock will have a permanent effect on the series. This research note tests the nonstationary hypothesis on the monthly data of visitor arrivals in Singapore from seven main source countries with Zivot and Andrews unit root test. This unit root test is used in this study because it allows for one endogenous break in the series. The obtained results suggest that each of these series is nonstationary, indicating that shocks to visitor arrivals in Singapore are permanent.