Factors Influencing Tourist Expenditure Among Different Spending Groups: Empirical Evidence from the Cook Islands

Abstract

This research investigates the factors influencing tourist expenditure which is essential for sustainable destination development and enterprise growth in the Cook Islands. This study examines how economic, socio-demographic, and trip-related characteristics influence tourists' on-site expenditure across different spending groups in the Cook Islands. The study utilises secondary data obtained from the Cook Islands International Visitor Survey (IVS) conducted between July 2022 and June 2023, comprising 942 international visitors. Multiple analytical tools, such as descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and quantile regression were employed to examine expenditure behaviour across low-, medium-, and high-spending tourists.

The findings indicate that household income and prepaid expenditure are positively related to tourist expenditure, whereas travel party size and length of stay are negatively related to daily on-site spending. Education and repeat visitor status exhibit modest effects, while age, gender, purpose of visit, and online decision influence do not significantly explain expenditure in the overall regression model. Quantile regression further reveals that the effects of expenditure determinants vary among different spending groups, demonstrating that household income is more influential among low- and medium-spending tourists than among high-spending visitors, whereas prepaid expenditure appears to be a salient determinant for high-spending visitors.

The study contributes to the tourism expenditure literature by providing empirical evidence from a small island destination and demonstrating the value of quantile regression in identifying heterogeneous spending behaviour. The findings offer practical implications for destination managers, tourism enterprises, and policymakers seeking to increase visitor yield through targeted marketing strategies and product development.