IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v59y2025i3d10.1007_s11135-024-01906-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental sustainability and tourism growth: convergence or compensation?

Author

Listed:
  • Viviana Torres-Díaz

    (Universidad Internacional del Ecuador
    University of Vigo)

  • María de la Cruz del Río-Rama

    (University of Vigo, As Lagoas S/n)

  • José Álvarez-García

    (Instituto Universitario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Territorial Sostenible (INTERRA))

  • Biagio Simonetti

    (University of Sannio
    WSB University in Gdansk
    National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV))

Abstract

In addition to the socio-economic advantages, tourism has been proven to be one of the most important sectors with adverse environmental effects. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability by using a panel data from 32 countries in Latin America and the European Union for the period 2000–2019. Several techniques of cointegration and convergence of clusters are used to meet this objective. The empirical results show that on average, tourism growth has a negative impact on the environment in the two groups of countries, which could be attributed to the heterogeneity of the level of regional tourism development. On the other hand, the convergence of tourism growth and environmental sustainability is evident at different adjustment speeds in the different sample panels. It generates empirical evidence on whether the current expansion of the tourism sector in Latin American and European countries entails significant environmental externalities by using the ecological footprint variable as an indicator of environmental sustainability and foreign tourist arrivals as an economic indicator.

Suggested Citation

  • Viviana Torres-Díaz & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama & José Álvarez-García & Biagio Simonetti, 2025. "Environmental sustainability and tourism growth: convergence or compensation?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 2129-2152, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11135-024-01906-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-024-01906-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-024-01906-w
    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/s11135-024-01906-w?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Jung Wan & Brahmasrene, Tantatape, 2013. "Investigating the influence of tourism on economic growth and carbon emissions: Evidence from panel analysis of the European Union," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 69-76.
    2. Ekonomou, George & Halkos, George, 2023. "Is tourism growth a power of environmental‘de -degradation’? An empirical analysis for Eurozone economic space," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1016-1029.
    3. Matheus Koengkan & Renato Santiago & José Alberto Fuinhas & António Cardoso Marques, 2019. "Does financial openness cause the intensification of environmental degradation? New evidence from Latin American and Caribbean countries," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(4), pages 507-532, October.
    4. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    5. Regis, Paulo José & Cuestas, Juan Carlos & Chen, Yang, 2015. "Corporate tax in Europe: Towards convergence?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 9-12.
    6. Elma Satrovic & Festus Fatai Adedoyin, 2023. "The Role of Energy Transition and International Tourism in Mitigating Environmental Degradation: Evidence from SEE Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona & Hurlin, Christophe, 2012. "Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1450-1460.
    8. Jing Gao & Wen Xu & Lei Zhang, 2021. "Tourism, economic growth, and tourism-induced EKC hypothesis: evidence from the Mediterranean region," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1507-1529, March.
    9. Jerry Hausman, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    10. Natalia Porto & Matías Ciaschi, 2021. "Reformulating the tourism-extended environmental Kuznets curve: A quantile regression analysis under environmental legal conditions," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(5), pages 991-1014, August.
    11. Zhike Lv & Ting Xu, 2023. "Tourism and environmental performance: New evidence using a threshold regression analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(1), pages 194-209, February.
    12. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    13. Wilman‐Santiago Ochoa‐Moreno & Byron Quito & Daniel E. Enríquez & José Álvarez‐García, 2022. "Evaluation of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context: evidence for 15 Latin American countries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2143-2155, July.
    14. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    15. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 653-670, November.
    16. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:631-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Hong Shi & Xia Li & Han Zhang & Xiaojuan Liu & Taohong Li & Zhentao Zhong, 2020. "Global difference in the relationships between tourism, economic growth, CO2 emissions, and primary energy consumption," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(9), pages 1122-1137, May.
    18. Mariam Camarero & Juana Castillo & Andrés Picazo-Tadeo & Cecilio Tamarit, 2013. "Eco-Efficiency and Convergence in OECD Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(1), pages 87-106, May.
    19. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    20. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:653-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1991. "Specification testing and quasi-maximum- likelihood estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1-2), pages 29-55.
    22. Mohammad Alizadeh, 2020. "Tourism Impact on Air Pollution in Developed and Developing Countries," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 24(1), pages 159-180, Winter.
    23. Lukas Figge & Kay Oebels & Astrid Offermans, 2017. "The effects of globalization on Ecological Footprints: an empirical analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 863-876, June.
    24. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1991. "On the application of robust, regression- based diagnostics to models of conditional means and conditional variances," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 5-46, January.
    25. Dickey, David A & Fuller, Wayne A, 1981. "Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 1057-1072, June.
    26. Zhang, Shun & Liu, Xuyi, 2019. "The roles of international tourism and renewable energy in environment: New evidence from Asian countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 385-394.
    27. Sami Fethi & Elif Senyucel, 2021. "The role of tourism development on CO2 emission reduction in an extended version of the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence from top 50 tourist destination countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1499-1524, February.
    28. Beatrice D. Simo-Kengne, 2022. "Tourism growth and environmental sustainability: trade-off or convergence?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 8115-8144, June.
    29. Lee, Kevin & Pesaran, M Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1997. "Growth and Convergence in Multi-country Empirical Stochastic Solow Model," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 357-392, July-Aug..
    30. Galeotti, Marzio & Lanza, Alessandro & Pauli, Francesco, 2006. "Reassessing the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: A robustness exercise," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 152-163, April.
    31. Moataz Elshimy & Khadiga M. El-Aasar, 2020. "Carbon footprint, renewable energy, non-renewable energy, and livestock: testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for the Arab world," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 6985-7012, October.
    32. Montañés, A. & Olmos, L., 2013. "Convergence in US house prices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 152-155.
    33. Ilhan Ozturk & Arshian Sharif & Danish Iqbal Godil & Adnan Yousuf & Iram Tahir, 2023. "The Dynamic Nexus Between International Tourism and Environmental Degradation in Top Twenty Tourist Destinations: New Insights From Quantile-on-Quantile Approach," Evaluation Review, , vol. 47(3), pages 532-562, June.
    34. Zaman, Khalid & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Loganathan, Nanthakumar & Raza, Syed Ali, 2016. "Tourism development, energy consumption and Environmental Kuznets Curve: Trivariate analysis in the panel of developed and developing countries," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 275-283.
    35. Kerui Du, 2017. "Econometric convergence test and club clustering using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 17(4), pages 882-900, December.
    36. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    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. Wilman‐Santiago Ochoa‐Moreno & Byron Quito & Daniel E. Enríquez & José Álvarez‐García, 2022. "Evaluation of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context: evidence for 15 Latin American countries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2143-2155, July.
    2. Wilman-Santiago Ochoa-Moreno & Byron Alejandro Quito & Carlos Andrés Moreno-Hurtado, 2021. "Foreign Direct Investment and Environmental Quality: Revisiting the EKC in Latin American Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Wilman-Santiago Ochoa-Moreno & Byron Quito & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama & Viviana Torres-Díaz, 2025. "Analysis of push and pull factors in net migration in Latin American countries & the Caribbean," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1999-2023, June.
    4. Ortiz, Cristian & Alvarado, Rafael & Salinas, Aldo, 2019. "The effect of military spending on output: New evidence at the global and country group levels using panel data cointegration techniques," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 402-414.
    5. Wenjing Zhang & Hengzhou Xu, 2017. "Exploring the causal relationship between carbon emissions and land urbanization quality in China using a panel data analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1445-1462, August.
    6. Salah Eddine SARI HASSOUN & Abdelkader SAHED & Khayereddine Salim ADDA & Asma Hadjira SEBBANE, 2020. "Not a long ago, the agriculture sector was the main pillar of any economy in the world. It not only provides food production, but it participates to the expansion of the economic growth as well. In th," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(623), S), pages 301-324, Summer.
    7. Arletta Isaeva & Raufhon Salahodjaev & Anastas Khachaturov & Shakhnoza Tosheva, 2022. "The Impact of Tourism and Financial Development on Energy Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emission: Evidence from Post-communist Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(1), pages 773-786, March.
    8. Usman, Muhammad & Makhdum, Muhammad Sohail Amjad, 2021. "What abates ecological footprint in BRICS-T region? Exploring the influence of renewable energy, non-renewable energy, agriculture, forest area and financial development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 12-28.
    9. Iheonu, Chimere & Asongu, Simplice & Odo, Kingsley & Ojiem, Patrick, 2020. "Financial Sector Development and Investment in Selected ECOWAS Countries: Empirical Evidence using Heterogeneous Panel Data Method," MPRA Paper 107102, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasreen, Samia & Abbas, Faisal & Anis, Omri, 2015. "Does foreign direct investment impede environmental quality in high-, middle-, and low-income countries?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 275-287.
    11. Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal & Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan & Ali, Qamar, 2019. "Nexus between financial development, tourism, renewable energy, and greenhouse gas emission in high-income countries: A continent-wise analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 293-310.
    12. Ma, Xuejiao & Ahmad, Najid & Oei, Pao-Yu, 2021. "Environmental Kuznets curve in France and Germany: Role of renewable and nonrenewable energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 88-99.
    13. Muhammad Azam & Zia Ur Rehman & Yusnidah Ibrahim, 2022. "Causal nexus in industrialization, urbanization, trade openness, and carbon emissions: empirical evidence from OPEC economies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(12), pages 13990-14010, December.
    14. Fang, Zheng & Chen, Yang, 2017. "Human capital, energy, and economic development – Evidence from Chinese provincial data," RIEI Working Papers 2017-03, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Research Institute for Economic Integration.
    15. Zahed Ghaderi & Behnaz Saboori & Mana Khoshkam, 2023. "Revisiting the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in the MENA Region: The Roles of International Tourist Arrivals, Energy Consumption and Trade Openness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.
    16. Tiwari, Sunil & Si Mohammed, Kamel & Guesmi, Khaled, 2023. "A way forward to end energy poverty in China: Role of carbon-cutting targets and net-zero commitments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    17. Mihaela Nicolau, 2020. "Interest rate and the financial and housing wealth effects in ten CEEC," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1132-1145.
    18. Eberhardt, Markus & Teal, Francis, 2008. "Modeling technology and technological change in manufacturing: how do countries differ?," MPRA Paper 10690, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Liu, Xuyi & Kong, Hao & Zhang, Shun, 2021. "Can urbanization, renewable energy, and economic growth make environment more eco-friendly in Northeast Asia?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 23-33.
    20. Santiago, Renato & Fuinhas, José Alberto & Marques, António Cardoso, 2020. "An analysis of the energy intensity of Latin American and Caribbean countries: Empirical evidence on the role of public and private capital stock," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11135-024-01906-w. 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.