Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>This paper tests if there is a direct and significant relationship between the workforce's well-being promotion (high-performing working policies or HPWP) and global tourism companies' profits and stock market price. With panel data of 141 companies of the Refinitiv Global Hotel and Entertainment Services price returns index (yearly data from 2011 to 2024), the authors tested if the happy/productive workers hypothesis (the relationship between HPWP and the return on equity ROE) holds. Also, they tested if the HPWP and stock price relationship holds, suggesting that the HPWP is a proper signal to price such companies. By controlling for market, volatility, and behavioral factors, the authors found that tourism companies in countries like Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, China (including Macau), France, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, the U.K. (including Gibraltar, the isles of Man and the Virgin Islands), and the U.S. the HPWP are a proper signal and tourism companies of such countries have higher prices with such efforts. Also, the authors found that the happy/productive workers hypothesis does not hold. Consequently, the high stock price of global tourism in companies that promote workers' well-being is due to investors' expectations and not to the impact of such efforts on profits.</p>