Author(s)

Nicholas Tsounis^1,2,3*, George Agiomirgianakis^2,4,5, Chaido Dritsaki^1,6, Aspasia Vlachvei^1,2, Efthymia Iliopoulou¹, Gerassimos Bertsatos¹, Zacharoula Kalogiratou⁷, Theodoros Monovasilis¹, Nikolaos Sariannidis⁶

¹Laboratory of Applied Economics, Department of Economics, University of Western Macedonia, Kastoria, Greece.
²School of Social Studies, Hellenic Open University, Patra, Greece.
³Faculty of Economics and Management, Open University of Cyprus, Latsia, Cyprus.
⁴Department of Accounting and Finance, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Chania, Greece.
⁵Hellenic Scientific Institute on the Economics of Education & Life-Long Learning, Research and Innovation, Athens, Greece.
⁶Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Western Macedonia, Kastoria, Greece.
⁷Department of Mathematics, University of Western Macedonia, Kastoria, Greece.

In this paper, we estimate expenditure elasticities of the main spending categories of domestic tourists visiting the region of Western Macedonia, Greece with the purpose of establishing sustainable growth and development pricing policies from the actors of the region. An Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model is developed and estimated with data collected by field survey. Our analysis shows that hotel entrepreneurs should adjust their pricing policy in periods with large changes in prices. Also, food expenditure is not considered as an important category in the tourists’ preferences, showing some flexibility since in the case of an increase in the price of museum services, tourists could balance it out by a reduction in their spending share of food. On the contrary of this, in case of a price increase in the museum services, tourists are not willing to reduce their consumption of these services rather they prefer to compensate for this increase by a reduction in their expenses for souvenirs. Moreover, our findings suggest that if the price of museums and the price of souvenirs would increase, the share of this category could be reduced. These findings have certain policy implications for hotel owners/managers, for restaurants and taverns of the region, as well as, for the Ministry of Culture in setting their pricing policies. The methodology developed in this study and the adaptation of the AIDS model to examine tourists’ expenditure patterns with primary survey data can be used by other studies for other regions of Greece or any other country.

AIDS Model, Domestic Tourism, Region of Western Macedonia

Tsounis, N. , Agiomirgianakis, G. , Dritsaki, C. , Vlachvei, A. , Iliopoulou, E. , Bertsatos, G. , Kalogiratou, Z. , Monovasilis, T. and Sariannidis, N. (2023) Pricing Policies for Sustainable Growth and Development Led by Tourism in the Region of Western Macedonia. Theoretical Economics Letters, 13, 1669-1683. doi: 10.4236/tel.2023.137096.