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Evaluation of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context: evidence for 15 Latin American countries

Abstract:

The tourism sector is growing rapidly, and this has greatly stimulated economic growth around the world; however, the environmental degradation that this implies cannot be ignored. In order to achieve sustainable tourism, it is important to study the link between tourism and environmental quality. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between tourism and CO2 emissions from 1995 to 2018 in a sample of 20 Latin American countries. Econometric techniques of cointegration and causality were used to evaluate the relationship between these variables. To test the consistency of cointegration vectors, the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOSL) model was applied for individual countries and the panel dynamic ordinary least squares (PDOLS) model for groups of countries. The results show that tourism revenues have a negative effect on the global panel and upper-middle-income countries (UMICs). This result is statistically significant. However, as tourism revenues increase, they start to have a positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions per capita, globally and in UMICs. These results, which are contrary to the theory, form a U shape, which does not support the ecological Kuznets curve.