Students' summer tourism: An econometric analysis of trip costs and trip expenditures

• This is the first micro-econometric study of the determinants of students' tourism expenditures.
• The determinants considered in the study explain 60% of the variation in students' tourism expenditures.
• Trip-characteristics are the most vital determinants of the variation in students' tourism expenditures.

In no prior study have the determinants of variation in students' tourism expenditures been examined from a micro-level point of view. The present study aims to fill this void. Using data from a survey conducted at a Norwegian university college in 2014 and a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) methodology, three main findings are presented: (1) length of stay, type of accommodation, trip destination, time of booking and type of financing are important determinants of students' summer trip costs and expenditures; students' age and financial situation less so, (2) trip-characteristics are the vital determinants of students' spending on tourism, and (3) there is an interaction effect between length of stay and trip destination on costs and expenditures. This effect suggests that one main reason trips within the Nordic countries are less costly on average than trips beyond the Nordic countries is that the former cost less per day the longer they last. Finally, some managerial and scholarly implications are discussed.