title: Infectious disease risk and international tourism demand.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  For some countries, favourable climatic conditions for tourism are often associated with favourable conditions for infectious diseases, with the ensuing development constraints on the tourist sectors of impoverished countries where tourism's economic contribution has a high potential. This paper evaluates the economic implications of eradication of Malaria, Dengue, Yellow Fever and Ebola on the affected destination countries focusing on the tourist expenditures.
  
  
  METHODS
  A gravity model for international tourism flows is used to provide an estimation of the impact of each travel-related disease on international tourist arrivals. Next the potential eradication of these diseases in the affected countries is simulated and the impact on tourism expenditures is estimated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that, in the case of Malaria, Dengue, Yellow Fever and Ebola, the eradication of these diseases in the affected countries would result in an increase of around 10 million of tourist worldwide and a rise in the tourism expenditure of 12 billion dollars.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By analysing the economic benefits of the eradication of Dengue, Ebola, Malaria, and Yellow Fever for the tourist sector-a strategic economic sector for many of the countries where these TRD are present-this paper explores a new aspect of the quantification of health policies which should be taken into consideration in future international health assessment programmes. It is important to note that the analysis is only made of the direct impact of the diseases' eradication and consequently the potential multiplicative effects of a growth in the GDP, in terms of tourism attractiveness, are not evaluated. Consequently, the economic results can be considered to be skeleton ones.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.|Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Business 2 Building (G27), 58 Parklands Drive, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia.
authors.forename: Jaume
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rosselló
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santana-Gallego
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration, School of Business Administration, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Shaheed, Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Waqas
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Awan
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D060740:Disease Eradication / Q000191:economics*; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D014195:Travel / Q000191:economics*; D015004:Yellow Fever / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control
keywords: Economic impact; global health; tourism; travel-related illness