Environmental Externalities in the Tourism Sector through COVID-19

Due to the spread of COVID-19, a global pandemic has developed since December 2019, severely affecting various economic sectors, including tourism and secondary and tertiary industries. To analyse the effects of the European tourism sector on CO2 emissions, emissions are modelled together with tourism indicators. The model allows for estimating the impact of the tourism sector on greenhouse gas emissions, distinguishing them from time and space effects. The model's results suggest a positive impact of tourism arrivals and tourism-related expenditure on CO2 emissions, meaning that the decrease in tourism contributed significantly to the overall reduction of CO2 emissions. Analysing the spatial autocorrelation shows that all countries we investigated are similarly affected by a reduction in tourism, and there appears to be no regional differentiation of impacts by COVID-19. To conclude the model's results, the reduction in emissions can be partly explained by the decrease in travel, which points to the potential in this relation that could be used as leverage in conceptualising measures to reduce CO2, targeting the tourism sector.