The price elasticity of demand is estimated using two proxies. In earlier studies, such as those of
BTCE (1995), Smith and Toms (1978), Phillips and Hamal (2000), Seetaram (2012b) and Yap (2013),
the real exchange rate is found to be statistically insignificant. These results are confirmed in this
study. The coefficient of REX in this study is 0.002 compared to 0.048 in Yap (2013) and 0.009
in Seetaram (2012b). These studies can give the wrong impression that Australian travellers are not
sensitive to changes in tourism prices. It is more plausible to conclude that Australia travellers are
price sensitive but that the real exchange rate is a poor proxy for tourism prices. This complicates
the process of estimating the price elasticity of demand and therefore this paper offers a solution
by introducing a simple method to calculate an alternative proxy for prices which yields better and
more reliable results.