Economic linkages and leakages in the hotel industry: The first empirical evidence from Turkey

Tourism has been regarded as a leading sector for the 21st century due to its so-claimed contribution to economic growth and development of a country. Among others, the so-called effects arise due to the creation of direct and indirect income and employment opportunities, easing balance of payment constraints, improvement of transfer of technology and knowledge and encouragement of foreign direct investment. In this line of the literature, the leakages of tourism activities and their weak linkages with the local and national economy are ignored. To outlay the leakages, it is necessary to examine in-depth the precise nature of leakages as well as the way they occur. This study investigates leakages of hotel industry for Marmaris, Turkey, by using data obtained by a self-generated semi-structured questionnaire applied to the managers of four- and five-star hotels. The findings indicate that the main leakages occur due to ownership characteristics of tourism agents/operators and through import.