A multidimensional perspective on the relationship between tourism and green growth

Abstract

This paper examines the various channels through which the tourism ecosystem can affect green development, utilizing a configurational approach to identify underlying mechanisms. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and necessary condition analysis are employed. The findings reveal that tourism does not act as either a necessary component or bottleneck to green development. Four models of tourism-driven high green development are identified including migration-based, growth-based, government-led tourism-driven, and government-led non-tourism-driven. Additionally, the causal relationship between tourism and green development is apparent primarily in less economically-developed regions. The study affirms the asymmetric causal impact of tourism on green development and presents a systematic and in-depth understanding of the asymmetric multivariate pathways that tourism can use to promote green development. These findings represent a significant contribution to the current literature and offer new perspectives for the field of sustainable tourism research.