Tourism is recognized as an activity with great potential for Brazil, not only because of its diverse tourist attractions but also because of the generation of economic dynamics and its capacity to absorb labour. This article investigates the influence of specialization, urbanization and diversification externalities on the tourism employment growth rate in Brazilian municipalities between 2006 and 2015. To this end, we apply Local Indicators of Spatial Association and spatial econometric models. Both techniques enable the visualization of a spatial and temporal overview of the convergence process in tourism employment in Brazil. The main results suggest that the externalities of specialization, urbanization and diversification positively affect the employment growth rate in the tourism sector. Nevertheless, the employment growth rate for tourism in neighbouring municipalities reduces local employment in the same sector, which we interpret as arising from a competitive effect.
