IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i4d10.1007_s10668-023-04284-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making tourism more sustainable: empirical evidence from EU member countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ani Trstenjak

    (University of Rijeka)

  • Ivana Tomas Žiković

    (University of Rijeka)

  • Saša Žiković

    (University of Rijeka)

Abstract

We analyze the sustainability factors that are pertinent to the tourism industry by exploring the effects of economic, environmental and social determinants on sustainable value added (SVA) in a two-stage analysis on a sample of 27 EU countries for the 2013–2019 period. In the first stage, we determine the relative efficiency based on DEA. In the second stage, we use the obtained variables in a dynamic panel data analysis setup. Contrary to the omnipresent push for complete green and sustainable transformation we find that increased GHG emissions will lead to an initial increase in SVA as the tourism sector needs time and effort to transition from a resource-oriented to an environmental-oriented production process. Contrary to previous findings, we show that environmental policies are not effective and that environmental taxation-related policies and procedures need to be revised. Economic growth implies increased pollution as well as increased SVA, as it requires more inputs and thus consumes more natural resources. Because of this it is of utmost importance to pay more attention to the quality of economic development in order to mitigate negative environmental externalities in the tourism sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Ani Trstenjak & Ivana Tomas Žiković & Saša Žiković, 2025. "Making tourism more sustainable: empirical evidence from EU member countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 9325-9355, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04284-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-04284-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-04284-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-023-04284-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yunzhao, Lu, 2022. "Modelling the role of eco innovation, renewable energy, and environmental taxes in carbon emissions reduction in E−7 economies: Evidence from advance panel estimations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 309-318.
    2. Stern, David I., 1997. "Limits to substitution and irreversibility in production and consumption: A neoclassical interpretation of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 197-215, June.
    3. Ming Zhang & Xiaorong Zou & Long Sha, 2019. "Social Security and Sustainable Economic Growth: Based on the Perspective of Human Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, January.
    4. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    5. Kurt Kratena & Mark Sommer, 2014. "Model Simulations of Resource Use Scenarios for Europe. WWWforEurope Deliverable No. 5," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47503, July.
    6. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    7. Eleonora Santos, 2023. "From Neglect to Progress: Assessing Social Sustainability and Decent Work in the Tourism Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-25, June.
    8. Anna Łozowicka, 2020. "Evaluation of the Efficiency of Sustainable Development Policy Implementation in Selected EU Member States Using DEA. The Ecological Dimension," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Stamatios Ntanos & Michalis Skordoulis & Grigorios Kyriakopoulos & Garyfallos Arabatzis & Miltiadis Chalikias & Spyros Galatsidas & Athanasios Batzios & Apostolia Katsarou, 2018. "Renewable Energy and Economic Growth: Evidence from European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-13, July.
    10. Belke, Ansgar & Dobnik, Frauke & Dreger, Christian, 2011. "Energy consumption and economic growth: New insights into the cointegration relationship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 782-789, September.
    11. James E. Payne, 2010. "Survey of the international evidence on the causal relationship between energy consumption and growth," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(1), pages 53-95, January.
    12. He, Yong & Liao, Nuo & Zhou, Ya, 2018. "Analysis on provincial industrial energy efficiency and its influencing factors in China based on DEA-RS-FANN," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 79-89.
    13. Chien‐Chiang Lee & Chun‐Ping Chang, 2006. "Social security expenditures and economic growth," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(5), pages 386-404, September.
    14. Apostolakis, Bobby E., 1990. "Energy--capital substitutability/ complementarity : The dichotomy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 48-58, January.
    15. Ani Trstenjak & Saša Žiković & Hoda Mansour, 2020. "Making Nautical Tourism Greener in the Mediterranean," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-15, August.
    16. João Romão & Peter Nijkamp, 2019. "Impacts of innovation, productivity and specialization on tourism competitiveness – a spatial econometric analysis on European regions," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(10), pages 1150-1169, June.
    17. Elena Toma, 2014. "Regional scale efficiency evaluation by input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis of tourism sector," International Journal of Academic Research in Environment and Geography, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Environment and Geography, vol. 1(1), pages 15-20, June.
    18. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    19. Ioannis Kostakis, 2020. "Is Tourism a Key Factor for Economic Growth? Fresh Evidence from South Europe Using Panel Cointegration and PVAR Analyses," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 123-138, December.
    20. Yu Kong & John L. Glascock & Ran Lu-Andrews, 2016. "An Investigation into Real Estate Investment and Economic Growth in China: A Dynamic Panel Data Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, January.
    21. Sarminah Samad & Alaa Alharthi, 2022. "Untangling Factors Influencing Women Entrepreneurs’ Involvement in Tourism and Its Impact on Sustainable Tourism Development," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-19, April.
    22. Josefa García Mestanza & Alfonso Cerezo Medina & Marco Antonio Cruz Morato, 2019. "A Model for Measuring Fair Labour Justice in Hotels: Design for the Spanish Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-20, August.
    23. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Contente dos Santos Parente, Clara & Leitão, Nuno Carlos & Cantos-Cantos, José María, 2023. "The influence of economic complexity processes and renewable energy on CO2 emissions of BRICS. What about industry 4.0?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    24. Soytas, Ugur & Sari, Ramazan, 2006. "Energy consumption and income in G-7 countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 739-750, October.
    25. Muhammad Tariq Majeed & Maria Mazhar, 2021. "Managing economic growth through tourism: Does volatility of tourism matter?," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 48(1), pages 49-69, March.
    26. Ben Jebli, Mehdi & Farhani, Sahbi & Guesmi, Khaled, 2020. "Renewable energy, CO2 emissions and value added: Empirical evidence from countries with different income levels," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 402-410.
    27. James E. Payne, 2010. "Survey of the international evidence on the causal relationship between energy consumption and growth," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(1), pages 53-95, January.
    28. Nuno Carlos Leitão & Daniel Balsalobre Lorente, 2020. "The Linkage between Economic Growth, Renewable Energy, Tourism, CO 2 Emissions, and International Trade: The Evidence for the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-16, September.
    29. Stern, David I., 2000. "A multivariate cointegration analysis of the role of energy in the US macroeconomy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 267-283, April.
    30. Ghali, Khalifa H. & El-Sakka, M. I. T., 2004. "Energy use and output growth in Canada: a multivariate cointegration analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 225-238, March.
    31. Ioana Meșter & Ramona Simuț & Liana Meșter & Dorin Bâc, 2023. "An Investigation of Tourism, Economic Growth, CO 2 Emissions, Trade Openness and Energy Intensity Index Nexus: Evidence for the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-26, May.
    32. Raimund Bleischwitz, 2010. "International economics of resource productivity – Relevance, measurement, empirical trends, innovation, resource policies," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 227-244, August.
    33. Caroline D. Ditlev-Simonsen, 2022. "Economic Theories and Sustainable Development," Springer Books, in: A Guide to Sustainable Corporate Responsibility, chapter 3, pages 37-60, Springer.
    34. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    35. Berndt, Ernst R & Wood, David O, 1979. "Engineering and Econometric Interpretations of Energy-Capital Complementarity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(3), pages 342-354, June.
    36. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    37. Hira Arain & Liyan Han & Arshian Sharif & Muhammad Saeed Meo, 2020. "Investigating the effect of inbound tourism on FDI: The importance of quantile estimations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(4), pages 682-703, June.
    38. Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani & Maedeh Sedaghat & Reza Maknoon & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, 2015. "Sustainable tourism: a comprehensive literature review on frameworks and applications," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 1-30, January.
    39. Windmeijer, Frank, 2005. "A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 25-51, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arminen, Heli & Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2019. "Corruption, climate and the energy-environment-growth nexus," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 621-634.
    2. Zheng, Xinye & Li, Fanghua & Song, Shunfeng & Yu, Yihua, 2013. "Central government's infrastructure investment across Chinese regions: A dynamic spatial panel data approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 264-276.
    3. Jing Li & Tsun Se Cheong & Jianfa Shen & Dahai Fu, 2019. "Urbanization And Rural–Urban Consumption Disparity: Evidence From China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(04), pages 983-996, September.
    4. Nasr G. Elbahnasawy & Michael A. Ellis, 2016. "Economic Structure And Seigniorage: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 940-965, April.
    5. Vusal Musayev, 2016. "Externalities in Military Spending and Growth: The Role of Natural Resources as a Channel through Conflict," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 378-391, June.
    6. Donatella Saccone, 2021. "Can the Covid19 pandemic affect the achievement of the ‘Zero Hunger’ goal? Some preliminary reflections," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(7), pages 1025-1038, September.
    7. Mi Lin & Yum K. Kwan, 2011. "Sectoral Location of FDI in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34, pages 1181-1198, July.
    8. Mohamed Boly, 2018. "CO 2 mitigation in developing countries: the role of foreign aid," Working Papers halshs-01740881, HAL.
    9. Kadagde Dalam Debonheur & Désiré Avom & Idrissa Ouedraogo, 2024. "The effect of natural resources rents on human development in selected African countries," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(3), pages 803-837, August.
    10. Orkhan Nadirov & Bruce Dehning, 2020. "Tax Progressivity and Entrepreneurial Dynamics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, April.
    11. Na Hou & Bo Chen, 2013. "Military Expenditure And Economic Growth In Developing Countries: Evidence From System Gmm Estimates," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 183-193, June.
    12. Hak Yeung & Jürgen Huber, 2022. "Further Evidence on China’s B&R Impact on Host Countries’ Quality of Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-17, May.
    13. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Pandey, Manish, 2012. "Gender and labor retrenchment in Chinese state owned enterprises: Investigation using firm-level panel data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 385-395.
    14. Linh T.D. Huynh & Hien Thanh Hoang, 2019. "Effects of exchange rate volatility on bilateral import performance of Vietnam: A dynamic Generalised method of Moments panel approach," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 88-110, January.
    15. Jooste, Charl & Liu, Guangling (Dave) & Naraidoo, Ruthira, 2013. "Analysing the effects of fiscal policy shocks in the South African economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 215-224.
    16. Heath Henderson & Leonardo Corral & Eric Simning & Paul Winters, 2015. "Land Accumulation Dynamics in Developing Country Agriculture," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(6), pages 743-761, June.
    17. Mateo Zokalj, 2016. "The impact of population aging on public finance in the European Union," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 40(4), pages 383-412.
    18. Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Tadadjeu, Sosson & Nounamo, Yann & Kamguia, Brice, 2022. "Governance in mitigating the effect of oil wealth on wealth inequality: A cross-country analysis of policy thresholds," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Michel Dumont, 2015. "Working Paper 05-15 - Evaluation of federal tax incentives for private R&D in Belgium: An update," Working Papers 1505, Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium.
    20. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04284-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.