Strategies in Sustainable Tourism, Economic Growth and Clean Energy

During the last six decades, economic growth has been closely influenced by tourism, energy use and environmental degradation. This connection has involved several effects over energy mix, like, for example, a rising share of renewable energy sources or more efficient management in the tourism industry, which has enhanced a sustainable economic growth with lower carbon emissions. To explore these effects over economic growth for a panel of Top 10 between 1995 and 2015, we explore the role of international tourism, renewable energy use and carbon emissions. The aim of this study is to validate the Tourism-Led Growth Hypothesis (TLGH) for selected Top 10 tourism destinations. Furthermore, how structural changes impact the energy mix and their effect over income levels is also tested via the driving mentioned above forces (i.e. renewable energy use, international tourism and CO₂ emissions). Through FMOLS and DOLS econometric estimations, the TLGH is confirmed. The same methodology endorses the existence of a dampening effect which raise the moderation effect between renewable energy sources and carbon emissions over economic growth. Thus, a moderating effect of the promotion of renewable sources over economic growth, via scale effect, is also endorsed.

The effect of tourism development on GHG has been a controversial research topic, and the existing literature fails to provide satisfactory evidence about the impact of tourism on climate change. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to study the dynamics of tourism development with several climate-changing substances through time- and regime (state)-varying analysis. Therefore, this article aims at contributing towards a novel analysis of the behaviour of carbon emissions and tourism development in the US following Markov regime-switching VAR (MS-VAR) models. This book chapter will observe the estimates to understand the effect of tourism on air pollution (CO₂ emissions) at different regimes/states. The stochastic process generating the unobservable regimes is an ergodic Markov chain with a finite number of states (s_t = 1……N) which is defined by the transition probabilities. Most of the current studies provide mixed evidence on the relationship between tourism and climate change through time- and regime-invariant parameter estimations. In contrast, MS-VAR model predictions reveal the constant term and other parameter coefficients, which are also subject to change from one regime to another regime, to explore the effects of explanatory variables on CO₂ in the US. The explanatory variables of this work are the Number of Tourist Visiting the US, Energy Consumption of Transportation Sector, and Industrial Production. MS-VAR models also monitored seasonality effects. In the estimations, we aim at observing accurately the impact of tourism on CO₂ emissions, as well as the effects of industrial production and transportation sector's energy usage on emissions, in the US.

This chapter aims to analyze the effect of the tourism sector on environmental quality for France, Spain, the United States, China, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Germany, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Japan, Austria, Greece, Honk-Kong, Malaysia, Russian Federation, Portugal, Canada, Poland and the Netherlands for 1995–2018. The empirical results indicate that the development of the tourism sector reduces both CO₂ emission and ecological footprint and the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is confirmed for CO₂ emission but not for ecological footprint. The findings also reveal that energy consumption degrades the environment in both forms of air pollution and social pressure, and  financial development alleviates CO₂ emission; however, it does not affect ecological footprint. All these results suggest that the tourism sector should be supported by the collaboration of the private sector and government.

This study discusses the relationship between tourism demand and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, as well as the correlation between renewable energy and CO₂ emissions. To achieve this, a robust panel methodology is employed for EU-28 countries. First, preliminary descriptive summary statistics and correlation analysis. Second, unit root tests in panel data (Levin et al. in J Econom, 108:1–24, 2002; ADF–Fisher Chi-square, and Phillips–Perron) to establish stationarity traits of the outlined variables Subsequently, we use Pedroni (Rev Econom Stat 83(4):727–731, 2001, Econom Theory 20(03):597–625, 2004), a panel data Random Effects (RE), DOLS (Panel Dynamic Least Squares) and panel Granger causality test, as econometric methodologies for long-run equilibrium relationship and detection of causality flow, respectively. The econometric empirical results confirm that there exists an Inverted-U linkage between economic growth and environmental degradation, which validates the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for EU-28 countries. Furthermore, empirical results show a negative association between tourist arrivals and CO₂ emissions, making it possible to infer that the tourism sector accentuates climate change. Regarding renewable energy, the results validate the negative relationship between this variable and carbon dioxide emissions, which is in line with previous studies. This result validates the position of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG’s) of access to clean energy (renewable energy) and mitigation of climate change issues. This empirical study also presents conclusions that are useful for policymakers and stakeholders.

Tourism is an essential industry for India for its economic advancement. Tourism contributed to one-tenth of India’s GDP and 42 million jobs in 2018. India has launched various measures to promote and push the tourism industry. Amidst the various schemes of the Government of India, Clean India Mission seemed to have a positive impact on the tourism Industry. The study aims to examine the impact of the Clean India campaign on four cities of India, and in turn, the impact on the tourist flows in these cities. The cities identified for this study are the top five tourist destinations of India during 2019: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Agra and Jaipur. Clean India Mission is an effort to deal with all kinds of solid waste, sanitation and hygiene issues and other forms of pollution. Clean India Mission is an initiative to restore India’s natural beauty by making the country cleaner and pollution-free.

Turkey, with rich tourism diversity and destinations, has experienced considerable changes in the tourism sector as one of the top ten most visited countries over two decades. Research shows that increasing mutual interaction and integration among countries and different cultures encourage visitors and contribute to tourism sector development. In this respect, in the light of available data, globalization performance in Turkey has been ongoing above the world average since 1970. On the other hand, the country has suffered terror attacks that are a significant deterrent factor for tourism. Hundreds of bombings and armed assaults occurred until very recently. However, empirical evidence on the role of terrorism and globalization in the tourism sector is not sufficient to clearly understand tourist behaviors and to provide new insights into the literature. Considering the probable effects of globalization and terrorism, Turkey is an excellent case to investigate tourism sector development within this framework. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how tourist arrivals to Turkey react to globalization level and terror attacks by using advanced time-series analysis covering the period 1980–2018. Results reveal that globalization and terrorism are essential determinants of tourist arrivals in Turkey.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission is directly linked with energy usage and plays an essential role in the debate on sustainable tourism development and environmental protection. Some authors argue that tourism faces the problem of being “addicted” to growth, which is incompatible with sustainable goals. The literature shows that the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis induced by tourism is verified, with some differences between developed and developing economies. Previous country-studies usually apply linear cointegration techniques and Granger causality tests in order to test the EKC hypothesis. This study explores the linkages between CO₂ emissions, economic growth, energy consumption and tourism development for Uruguay without imposing—a priori—any parametric model, in order to investigate the presence of nonlinearity in the relation, as postulated by the EKC hypothesis. This paper examines the dynamic long-run relationship among these variables, using data from 1960 to 2014. We test the existence of nonlinear cointegration relationship and the causality applying nonparametric tests. We find that this methodology provides a more suitable way to represent linkages between the variables under study for Uruguay. Nevertheless, the evidence regarding the causality between tourism growth and CO₂ emissions is weak. Finally, we discuss policy implications, limitations, and future research.

Sustainable development is a holistic approach that aims to do future-friendly planning with its economic, environmental and social dimensions by establishing a balance between the needs of human life and the sustainability of natural resources. Tourism, contributing to the economic development of both developed and developing countries, includes environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development with this structure. Therefore, analyzing tourism development and environmental quality nexus is a crucial issue for policymakers to design effective policies for a sustainable life. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of tourism investments on the ecological footprint in the six countries (Ecuador, Egypt, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tunisia and Sri Lanka), which are in the top 20 countries, fastest-growing in terms of tourism GDP over the period of 1995–2014. In addition to tourism investments, our quadratic EKC model includes economic growth, energy use and individual internet use as independent variables. Empirical findings reveal that tourism investments and internet uses have negative impacts on ecological footprint. On the other hand, energy consumption increases environmental degradation. Also, the existence of the EKC is confirmed in these countries.

Because of the structural change in the economy, it is observed that the emphasis on the service sector brings along some problems. The link between the tourism sector and environmental pollution has started to draw attention to the issues in recent years, and it reveals the need for policy-makers to take measures to prevent environmental pollution. For this purpose, the impact of economic growth, tourism index, urbanization, and energy intensity on environmental pollution has been investigated for selected 10 countries with the international tourism revenue during 1995–2014 using first-generation panel data (MG) estimator, second-generation panel data (CCE-MG) estimator, and heterogeneous panel causality test. According to the empirical analysis, individual results indicate that the impact of tourism on environmental pollution differs in each country. While tourism increases environmental pollution in Germany, France, and Italy, where the tourism sector is the most developed, there is not any environmental pollution increasing effect in the US and Australia. In addition, according to the CCE-MG panel results, tourism, energy intensity, and per capita income increase environmental pollution.

Based on the New Economics trend, only sustainable income should be regarded as a genuine income. The conventionally measured income through GDP is neither sustainable nor genuine. The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) incorporates all aspects of income generation and or income destruction in a triple-level consideration: economy, environment and society. In this chapter, I propose transferring this logic to the measurement of tourism income, as part of national GDP. Many countries boast high percentages of tourism GDP, with subsequent direct, indirect and induced effects. However, there is a question of how much of that income is sustainable and genuine and how much cost that income incurs during the process of its generation and consumption. This chapter attempts transferring the paradigm of the ISEW as a proxy for sustainable GDP into a tourism ISEW as a proxy for sustainable tourism GDP.

The hospitality industry is a rapidly evolving market, where the goal now is “differentiation of experience”. This article explores the growth of boutique hotels in Greece, as it is one of the dominant trends in the country's hotel industry. Specifically, it is attempted to determine the structural and functional characteristics of boutique hotels operating in Greece. In that framework, adopting the triangulated method (Secondary and Primary research qualitative and quantitative research) strengthen the complementary nature of the findings and enrich our understanding of the multidimensional and multifaceted status of boutique hotel. The findings of this effort concern the main characteristics of Greek boutique hotels, mainly from a supply perspective. Greek boutique hotels are characterized by low capacity and their location, which is an indispensable “ingredient” of the product, they stand out for their unique design concept, aim and work towards upgraded amenities & tailored services, and usually, invest in providing technology.

Tourism has been proved an important driving force for economic growth and development. Despite that, the overtourism phenomenon, hand in hand with the sharing economy, has been proved to affect destinations in multiple ways, tourism rejection or the rising of the housing prices, among others. Over the last decade and mainly since United Nations 2030 Agenda was announced, the sustainability of the cities has become an explicit global objective of development. Tourism has been understood as a tool for improving economic and social aspects in contexts of countries in development, but the phenomenon of tourism saturation and concentration around few neighbourhoods in solid destinations from developed economies could be distancing this achievement from the cities. This chapter presents a comparative analysis between two of the top urban Spanish destinations, Madrid and Barcelona, showing the current reality between tourism, real estate prices and mean household income in a neighbourhood-level approach. Does overtourism help destinations in the goal of reaching regional convergence in terms of urban sustainability or does it worsen the situation?

Tourism in India has evolved considerably during the last decade, and Bengal as a state has performed considerably well for the growth of tourism. Tourism in Bengal has not only contributed to the growth of the economy in the state of Bengal but has developed the state's remote area which has now turned into a key tourist spot. One such area is the region of Digha in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, and it has turned out to be the most popular sea resort in West Bengal. The Digha Sankarpur Development Authority has taken key measures to develop tourism in Digha. The basic objective of this paper will be to determine the standard of living among the people of Digha who are associated with tourism after the various schemes to promote tourism by the state government. We have used ordinal regression analysis as most of our data were qualitative in nature and interpretation was done accordingly for the results obtained. Through our findings, we have tried to bring out the various problems associated with tourism in Digha along with the suggestions to improve it.

Over the last few decades, a significant volume of research has been documented on the tourism-led growth hypothesis (TLGH). However, the role of education over environmental degradation is yet to be given the desired attention. This study explores the impact of air transport over economic growth between 1994 and 2014 in China, India and the US, the three economies predicted to be the largest in forthcoming years. This way, TLGH is tested while also introducing the connection between education and pollutant emissions (CO₂) for these economies. Thus, suggesting how development in air transport contributes positively to enhance economic growth in the long run. In contrast, ascending CO₂ emissions are negatively connected to economic growth contributing to its reduction in selected countries. Further empirical results also confirm the positive effects of energy use and education on economic growth. Based on these results, education is seen to mitigate the pernicious effects of environmental degradation over economic growth's dampening effects.