Micro-economic determinants of tourist expenditure: A quantile regression approach

•Linear and quantile regression analysis of individual tourist spending survey data.•Large set of variables accounts for tourism product high degree of differentiation.•Evidence provided on the high complexity of the tourism product.•Income, foreigners, trip and psychographic variables relevant spending determinants.•Relevant difference in spending behavior between light and heavy-spending tourists.

We assess the effect of the main determinants of tourist expenditure by applying both linear and quantile regression models to individual micro data collected by a survey addressed to non-resident tourists who spent their holidays in Sardinia during the period April–October 2012. We find that, in addition to income and foreign nationality, tourist expenditure is crucially driven by trip-related (party size, stay length, accommodation, sea and sun typology and transport modality) and psychographic characteristics (repeated visits and holiday motivations). Moreover, our results indicate that the effects vary with respect to the expenditure component and the level of spending, thus confirming the high complexity of the tourism product. Higher positive effects were found for heavy spenders in the case of foreign nationality, previous visits and notoriety-motivated holidays, while party size and the number of visited sites contribute to reducing the level of expenditure for light-spending tourists.