The early development of tourism industry was mostly originated from the European and the Northern American countries. Due to their long history in tourism industry, these countries are now known as the most established tourist destinations globally. The significant contributions of tourism industry to the economy have stimulated new countries, especially developing economies to participate in developing their tourism industry. In the last two decades, tourism had emerged as one of the key industries and major contributor to the economies of developing countries, especially in terms of export earnings. This study attempts to identify factors affecting the development of tourism industry and economic growth. It also tries to determine the existence and direction of long run relationship between tourism development and economic growth. The study involved eight countries, four from developed countries (the United Kingdom, United States, Italy and Spain) and another four from the emerging markets (China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore). The research questions are tested using cointegration method and the Granger causality test. The study found that one-way relationship existed between tourism development and economic growth. For the United Kingdom, Italy, Hong Kong and Singapore, the growth of the tourism industry contributes towards economic growth, while for the United States, Spain, Malaysia and China, the growth of the economy is the leading factor to tourism development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","tags":[14,186,188,187,185],"jel-code":[],"article-type":[1329],"class_list":["entry","author-jem","post-2223","article","type-article","status-publish","tag-cointegration","tag-economic-growth","tag-granger-causality-test","tag-international-markets","tag-tourism-industry","article-type-normal-article"],"yoast_head":"\n