Research note: The SARS epidemic and international visitor arrivals to Cambodia: is the impact permanent or transitory?

This study contributes to the existing literature by examining whether the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) health scares had a permanent or transitory effect on tourist arrivals in a transition economy - Cambodia. The findings, which are based on unit root tests with an unknown level shift proposed by Lanne et al (2002) and Saikkonen and Lutkepohl (2002), show that visitor arrivals from Cambodia's major source markets are stationary. This implies that the SARS crisis had a transitory effect on Cambodia.