Effects of tourism on carbon dioxide emissions, a panel causality analysis with new data sets

The study investigates the effect of international tourist advents on carbon dioxide discharges in a panel set of hundred countries ranked in order of arrival of tourists over 1995 to 2014, under the background of EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curve) postulate. A multivariate model is adopted grounded on the "Kaya Identity" where the long-run relation concerning the arrival of tourists and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere are examined through the linkages of economic growth (proxied through new night light data sets), energy intensity use, physical capital formation and human capital formation. The results based on the panel cointegration corroborates the long-run equilibrating association across the set of observations. The methodology of FMOLS, the mean group estimates, DOLS estimation and the Correlated Effects Mean Group estimate enumerate the long-run estimates. Further the results confirm the following causality relationships: tourism-driven emission; economic growth led emission; tourism-driven growth of the economy and gross capital in fixed terms leading the growth of the economy in the short run, built on the Granger causality Wald test. The paper concludes that proper policy direction towards sustainable tourism can reduce emission from tourism in the long run. R and D should focus on the development of green technology and cleaner technology in the tourism ancillary industries.