INTRODUCTION
The tourism industry is currently the world ûs largest and most diverse business sector since it serves as a primary source for generating revenue, employment, private sector growth, and infrastructure development for many countries. Researchers have argued that tourism development not only stimulates the growth of the industry, but also triggers overall economic growth (Lee and Chang, 2008). Hence, enhancing economic growth by promoting the tourism industry has become an important economic development strategy in most developing countries (Chen and Chiou-Wei, 2009). This belief is consistent with one of the three relevant hypotheses regarding the relationship between tourism development and economic expansion—namely, the tourism-led economic growth hypothesis, the economic-driven tourism growth hypothesis, and the reciprocal causal hypothesis. Economists emphasize the economic effects of tourism on the economy. The speedy growth of tourism causes an increase in