Exploring the Relationship Between Tourism Development, Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions: A Case Study of Tunisia

Tourism is viewed increasingly as an essential sector to local, regional and national reconstruction and development for economies at various scales. However, its contribution on environmental quality degradation is more important. Indeed, any increase in the number of tourism requires amounts of growing energy, which increases CO2 emissions. The objective of this article is to empirically investigate the relationship between tourism development, energy consumption and carbon emissions in Tunisia over the period of 1974-2014.To recognize this relationship, a bonds test of co-integration, ARDL model and Granger Causality Tests have been employed. After having confirmed that the existence of co-integration relationship between energy consumption tourism demand and CO2 emission, the results indicate that tourism has a direct impact and statistically significant effect on the consumption of energy for the future of the Tunisian economy. The short-term results indicate bidirectional causality between energy consumption and emissions of CO2 and also between the consumption of energy and tourism, meanwhile the absence of any causal relationship between the emissions of CO2 and tourism. Tourism affects the quality of the environment indirectly through the consumption of energy. So, the protection measures in the tourism sector should be laid down in Tunisia. Sustainability in the tourism sector is one of the major axis of debate on tourism development integrated in the environment.