The impact of tourism on carbon dioxide emissions: insights from 95 countries

Abstract

Tourism development seems to have mixed effects on the level of CO2 emissions across the globe. This study thus provides international evidence on the impacts of tourism on carbon dioxide emissions in countries of arrival. We employ a large panel of 95 countries, consisting of three subsamples of countries classified by income level over the period 1998–2014. The theoretical framework of this study is built based on an extended version of STIRPAT model combined with the EKC. The empirical results are following: (i) tourism (receipts and number of arrivals) reduces total CO2 emissions and CO2 emission from electricity and heat production in the countries of arrival; (ii) tourism increases CO2 emissions from transport, while the number of tourist arrivals increases CO2 emissions per capita; and (iii) The effects of tourism on emissions vary across different income levels. At the global level, tourism appears to increase CO2 emissions from transportation, suggesting that special attention should be paid to supporting green transportation infrastructure technologies and practices in the tourism industry. Overall, there is room for improvement in tourism management in countries of all income levels to promote the development of low-carbon tourism products and services