Resumen
We investigate the relationship between tourism specialization and economic growth. Wedeviate from previous studies ? which have reported mixed evidence ? by allowing therelationship to take a nonlinear form. We find that tourism specialization is associated withhigher rates of economic growth at relatively low levels of specialization but eventuallydiminishing returns set in and tourism?s contribution becomes minimal. The policy lessonis that there is promise for tourism-led growth in developing countries but other economicactivities must also be developed in order to carry the economy forward once the potentialof tourism-led growth has been exhausted.