The Importance of Energy for the Tourism Sector

This paper studies the problems and specific issues related to tourism and energy consumption. The purpose of this paper is establishing the cause and effect relationship between tourism and energy consumption and determining whether the increase in the number of tourists increases energy consumption. The paper analyses the following EU countries with similar economic climates: Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia,Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The analysis of the secondary data from statistical databases (Eurostat, WTO, IEA) using indicators such as the number of overnight stays, GDP and energy consumption, serves to establish the relationship between energy and tourism. In all observed countries, programme activities in the previous period were directed toward energy management capacity building and measures with a lower cost of implementation, such as educational and informational projects. This resulted in significant energy savings in the service sector,which is further demonstrated in the empirical part of the paper. The results indicate an increase in the number of overnight stays in all analysed countries, and show an evident direct impact of tourism on GDP. However, in some countries, an increase in the number of overnight stays does not increase energy consumption. These results indicate that some countries (Slovenia) have a more developed economy and therefore higher energy consumption, compared to some other countries (Croatia). This research provides reliable and actual qualitative and quantitative data about the problems of energy and tourism, as well as the overview of indicators in selected countries, demonstrating the cyclical relationship between tourism, economy, and energy.