Dr Sarath Divisekera

Dr Sarath Divisekera is an Associate Professor of Economics in the College of Business, Victoria University.

Sarath specialises in teaching quantitative economics and engages in several fields of research, ranging from applied micro economics and econometrics to specialist fields such as development economics and tourism economics.

His recent research focus is mainly in the area of tourism economics with a particular emphasis on tourism demand modelling, tourism taxation and policy modelling and tourism satellite accounts.

He has authored a wide range of research articles and monographs and has published in most top-tier tourism journals. He is an appointed member of the Editorial Board of Tourism Economics.

Sarath has won several competitive research grants and has been the principal investigator on two CRCST grants, and provided econometric consulting services on many others.

He is the recipient of the Vice Chancellor's Citation Award for Excellence in Research and the Faculty of Business and Law Staff Research Award. He was a visiting Professor at the National Centre for Tourism Policy Studies at Limerick University, Ireland and FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, Austria.

Key publications

Refereed journal articles

Divisekera, S. (2010 a) Economics of tourist's consumption behaviour: Some evidence from Australia. Tourism Management, Vol. 31(5): 629-636

Divisekera, S. (2010 b) Economics of Leisure and Non-Leisure Tourist Demand: A Study of Domestic Demand for Australian Tourism. Tourism Economics, Vol.16 (1): 117-1136

Divisekera, S. & Deegan, J. (2010), An Analysis of Consumption Behaviour of Foreign Tourists in Ireland. Applied Economics, Vol. 42: 1681-1697

Divisekera, S. (2009) Economics of Domestic Tourism: A Study of Australian Demand for Tourism Goods and Services. Tourism Analysis, Vol. 14, (3): 279-282

Divisekera. S. (2003) A Model of Demand for International Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.30: 31-49

Books

Divisekera, S. (2007) Modelling And Estimation of Tourism Demand Elasticities: A Study of Tourist Expenditure Allocation in Australia. CRC Sustainable Tourism, ISBN 9781920965235

Kulendran, N. & Divisekera, S. (2006) Australian tourism marketing expenditure elasticity estimates. CRC Sustainable Tourism. ISBN: 1920704558

Refereed book chapters

Divisekera, S. (2013[a]) Tourism Demand Modelling: A Review of Conceptual and Theoretical Issues. Chapter 2 in Handbook of Tourism Economics, Clem Tisdell (ed), The World Scientific Publishing Company

Divisekera, S. (2013[b]) Specifications and Empirical Estimation of Tourism Demand Models: A Review. Chapter 3 in Handbook of Tourism Economics, Clem Tisdell (ed), The World Scientific Publishing Company

Divisekera, S. (2012) The Almost Ideal Demand System. Handbook of Research Methods in Tourism: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, L. Dwyer, A. Gill & N. Seetaram (eds), Edward Elgar Publishing

De Lacy, T. and Divisekera S. (2009) Forests As A Tourism Earth Lung. Chap. 3.8 in Climate Change And Tourism: Reality And Fiction, J. Jafari & E. Fayos-Sola (eds), World Tourism Organization, Madrid

View the full list of Sarath's publications in Victoria University's Institutional Repository.

Teaching responsibilities

• business economics
• economics analysis
• international economics
• business statistics
• quantitative analysis
• business research methods

Coordination

B. Bus International Business

Postgraduate research students and fellows

Completions: 1 PhD student, 3 Masters students

Current co-supervision: 2 PhD students

Research grants

Sustainable Tourism CRC

$89,600 (2002-2006)

$30,000 (2004)

Professional membership

• Economic Society of Australia
• American Economic Association
• Royal Economic Society
• International Association of Tourism Economics
• Affiliated Member - UNWTO
• Asia Pacific Tourism Association

Conference presentations

Co-Chair, International Conference on Tourism & Hospitality, December 2013, Colombo Sri Lanka

Convener, International Conference on Managing Tourism in the Global Economy, December 2003, Melbourne, Australia