The economic impact of English language tourists on the host country : a case study for Malta

Abstract

Diversification within the tourism industry has led to the creation and growth of the language tourism industry, a niche industry which caters to tourists whose primary travel purpose is language acquisition. This industry has been growing over the years, worldwide and locally, with 38 local schools attracting over 87,000 students annually prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Previous studies have found these language tourists to offer a higher economic impact for the host country then conventional tourists. Regardless of the industry’s popularity and such indications, literature on the industry’s economic impact remains limited, especially in the Maltese context. This dissertation aims to measure such impact on the host economy by focusing on the case study of Malta. In doing so, it aims to highlight the importance of the industry to the local economy. This study is based on the case study of Malta, based on primary data collected by the researcher from students enrolled in English Courses in 6 local ELT schools. This data was collected through an online survey distributed between June and August. This survey was designed to gather data to estimate the average expenditure per language tourists’ stay. These estimates were utilised for an input-output analysis based on a Leontief demand-driven model built on the disaggregated symmetric input-output tables for 2015. This measured the output, income and value-added from direct, indirect and induced effects. This model was utilised to answer the research problem of quantifying the economic impact of English language students on the host economy. This dissertation estimated that language students generated €133,013,873 in expenditure for 2021. This was estimated to impact Output, Income and Value-added by approximately a total of €320,000,000, €85,000,000 and €60,000,000 respectively from direct and indirect and induced effects. This increase in final demand was focused on education. This additional impact generated trough education is over and above the impact generated by conventional tourists. This impact, along with language students' higher per capita spending (5.6 times that of conventional students) highlight the economic impact of such an industry.