Explanatory power of the tourist destination competitiveness index on the control of the first wave of COVID-19

Purpose: This article intends to analyse the explanatory power of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) and some of its constituent factors on national success metrics in managing the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The authors study the outbreak control effectiveness of 132 countries during the first semester of 2020. The authors apply generalized linear regression models and weighted least squares models using 6 COVID-19-related dependent variables, 9 TTCI-related independent variables and 12 control variables. Findings: The results suggest that countries with superior TTCI values and selected constituent factors have the highest daily averages of coronavirus infections and fatalities per million and the highest speed rates of COVID-19 spread. The authors also find that these countries have the shortest government response time, the lowest daily average of the social restrictions index and the shortest time from the first case reported in China to the first case reported nationally. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' awareness, no previous study exists analysing the statistical relationship between the TTCIB and some of its constituent factors with the selected metrics of national success at managing the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. This fact represents the primary evidence of this article's unique contribution. © 2022, Juan Dempere and Kennedy Modugu.

Globalization and Foreign Direct Investment in the GCC Countries: A Recipe for Post COVID-19 Recovery

This study investigates the long-run relationship between the de jure economic, political, and social globalization and foreign direct investments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to establish whether policies that foster trade and investment relations among geographical entities can help revive the GCC countries from the prevailing economic debacles of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is driven by the GCC's quest to fully overcome the economic challenges occasioned by the outbreak of the global pandemic and position itself as the most potent regional economic bloc in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The study employs the panel data of the six GCC countries of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia from 1971 to 2017. The findings of the panel fully modified ordinary least square regression estimation show that the de jure economic and social globalization have a significant positive impact on the region's foreign direct investment inflows. The impact of the de jure political globalization on foreign direct investment is statistically significant but negatively signed. Based on the preceding findings, we offer some holistic policy recommendations to the GCC region as recipes for timely recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19 and beyond.