Tourism, growth and environment: analysis of non-linear and moderating effects

Abstract

This paper examines the non-linear effect of tourism on environmental degradation in 31 African countries. It also determines the moderating effect of tourism on the impact of economic growth on environmental degradation. It employs Pedroni, Johansen-Fisher and Westerlund panel cointegration tests to investigate the cointegration relationship between the variables. It uses the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares, dynamic system Generalized Method of Moments and Augmented Mean Group. These techniques enable us to account for various economic and econometric issues such as cointegration, heterogeneity, endogeneity, dynamism and cross-sectional dependence. This study reveals a cointegration relationship between the variables. It shows that tourism has a U-shaped non-linear effect on environmental degradation in African countries. Specifically, at early stage, tourism diminishes environmental degradation, but aggravates it as tourism increases. Besides, this study shows that tourism adversely moderates the impact of economic growth on environmental degradation. This paper makes significant contributions to the extant literature by unveiling the non-linear and moderating effects of tourism on the environment. The implication is that tourism is a significant determinant of environmental degradation, hence, effort to mitigate it should incorporate tourism. It may be necessary for African countries to emphasize green tourism in order to attain sustainable development.

Keywords:

• Economic growth
• environmental degradation
• sustainable development
• tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All the data were obtained from World Development Indicators, (2018) published by the World Bank

2 Environmental degradation refers to the deterioration of the environment through the depletion of resources (e.g. air, water and soil), the destruction of habitat and ecosystems, the extinction of wildlife and pollution. In line with some previous studies (e.g. Tamazian et al., 2009; Tamazian & Rao, 2010), we use carbon dioxide emissions as a proxy for environmental degradation.

3 We thank the anonymous referee for this comment. Since our specific objective is to determine the non-linear effect of tourism on environmental degradation, rather than to test the conventional EKC hypothesis (an issue that had been widely examined), we augment the model used in some previous studies (e.g. Dogan & Aslan, 2017; Katircioglu, 2014) with the tourism squared.

4 The countries include Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

5 The results are not reported for want of space, but available upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kizito Uyi Ehigiamusoe

Dr. Kizito Uyi Ehigiamusoe is a Lecturer in Taylor's Business School, Taylor's University Selangor, Malaysia. He worked as a Teaching Fellow in the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Dr. Kizito was also a Researcher in the Department of Research and Training, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria. He obtained his Ph.D from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) under the USM Fellowship Award. His main research areas include Financial Economics, Energy Economics and Macroeconomics. Dr Kizito has presented several papers in academic conferences in Africa, Europe and Asia. He has published several articles in reputable peer reviewed journals such as Applied Energy; Environmental Science and Pollution Research; Journal of Policy Modelling; Empirical Economics; Emerging Markets Finance and Trade; Economics; Singapore Economic Review; Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning and Policy; African Development Review; Journal of African Business; Contemporary Economics; among others.