Date of Award

5-2014

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Economics and Finance

Committee Chair(s)

Devon Gorry

Committee

Devon Gorry

Committee

William F. Shughart II

Committee

Diana Thomas

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate that the incorporation of search statistics in autoregressive models used to predict the arrivals of tourists to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, improve the predictive power of the models. This paper explores whether the Internet search information in “Punta Cana” in the United States and Canada between January 2004 and August 2013, reflects the behavior of this variable in real time by using nowcasting methodology that combines variables with different frequencies of time. We find that including the searches of “Punta Cana” that Canadians make on Google in the first week of a month helps predict the actual arrival of Canadian tourists to Punta Cana in that month. The same applies in the case of Americans, but using the searches made during the third week of a month.

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS