The contribution of human migration to tourism: The VFR travel between the EU28 member states

This study explores the correlation between human migration and that part of tourism due to people visiting friends and relatives in a foreign country. We first compared the network structure of migration stocks and tourism flows between the 28 member countries of the European Union over the period 2000–2012. Then, we performed several econometric analyses to study the main tourism determinants and the correlations between migration to tourism. The paper derives from the discussion of the results an estimate of the contribution to the overall tourism phenomenon due to visiting friends and relatives. Complex network analysis and gravity models were the investigation methods preferred.