The economic impact of international students in a regional economy from a tourism perspective

This paper assesses the economic impact of international students in a regional economy (Galicia) from the viewpoint of the tourism industry. The current extent of international student mobility and its potential future development make it an appropriate topic for analysis in terms of its local and regional economic impacts, first and foremost at the academic and political levels. A methodology to facilitate the estimation of both the direct effects on the education sector and the possible 'externalities' on the tourism industry will enable economic evaluation of financial efforts to attract international students. Without considering the potential increase of other visitors, the results indicate that international students have less economic impact than that associated with inbound tourism and, in the case of exchange students (as a constituent group of international students), the economic contribution could even be negative for a local economy.