Tourism and electricity consumption in 9 European countries: a decomposition analysis approach

ABSTRACT

Tourism is a major economic activity constituting one of the main sectors in economic terms. European countries traditionally play a significant role in the overall international tourism flow. However, while tourism has a noticeable positive impact on economic development, it also contributes to environmental degradation by increasing energy consumption and therefore emissions. This paper analyses the relationships between Hotel and Restaurant electricity consumption and tourism growth in 9 European countries during 2004–2012, for which there is a sufficient amount of data available. A decomposition analysis based on log-mean Divisia index method (LMDI I) is conducted to examine electricity consumption on this sector and their components. Five decomposition factors are considered: energy intensity (EI), physical capital intensity (KI), physical and human capital relationship (KL), human capital intensity (LI) and the tourism factor (T). Results show the evolution of energy consumption related to this sector, identifying the driving forces that have influenced it.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism growth
• electricity consumption
• hotels and restaurants sector
• European countries
• LMDI
• decomposition analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the funding provided by the following institutions: the RTI2018-096725-B-I00 Project of the Spanish Ministry of Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; the ‘Cátedra de Economía de la Energía y del Medio Ambiente’ sponsored by ‘Red Eléctrica de España’ at the ‘Universidad de Sevilla’ (University of Seville); the Andalusian Regional Government (Project SEJ-132); and the ‘Departamento de Análisis Económico y Economía Política (Universidad de Sevilla)’ (Department of Economic Analysis and Political Economy at the University of Seville). The first author also acknowledges the funding provided by the Universidad Autónoma de Chile (Chile).