Although the relationship between international trade and economic growth has found a wide application area in the literature over the years, this can not be said about tourism and growth or trade and tourism. This study employs the bounds test for cointegration and Granger causality tests to investigate a long-run equilibrium relationship between tourism, trade and real income growth, and the direction of causality among themselves for Cyprus. Results reveal that tourism, trade and real income growth are cointegrated; thus, a long-run equilibrium relationship can be inferred between these three variables. On the other hand, Granger causality test results suggest that real income growth stimulates growth in international trade (both exports and imports) and international tourist arrivals to the island. Furthermore, growth in international trade (both exports and imports) also stimulates an increase in international tourist arrivals to Cyprus. And finally, real import growth stimulate growth in real exports in the case of Cyprus.

Tourism-Led Growth (TLG) hypothesis results are inconclusive for Mediterranean countries in the relevant literature. This study contributes to the literature by employing the bounds test for co-integration and Granger causality tests to investigate level relationship and the direction of causality between international tourism and economic growth in the case of Malta. Results reveal that a long-run equilibrium relationship exists between international tourism and economic growth in the case of Malta. On the other hand, Granger causality test results suggest that both the Tourism-Led Growth and output-driven tourism hypotheses can be inferred for Malta since there is bidirectional causation between international tourism and economic growth.