Abstract
ABSTRACT This study makes significant incursion into the tourism literature by investigating whether per capita (PC) income moderates the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on tourism development in South Asia. With an unbalanced panel data on six South Asian countries from 1995 to 2019, the study engages a battery of analytical techniques which includes the Prais–Winsten panel-corrected standard error to probe the discourse. Findings reveal, inter alia, that at the 1% level, (1) carbon emission is a significant and negative predictor of tourism, (2) the impact of emission on tourism differs significantly across South Asia, (3) economic growth is a significant and positive predictor of tourism, (4) the impact of growth on tourism differs significantly across South Asia and (5) growth reduces the devastating impact of emissions. Country results are mixed. Specifically, emissions reduce tourism in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka but boosts tourism in Nepal and Pakistan. Conversely, economic growth increases tourism and reduces the devastating impact of emissions in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, whereas it reduces tourism and increases the devastating impact of emissions in Nepal and Pakistan. Although the study submits that growth is a critical driver of tourism in South Asia, the moderating impact of growth is not sufficient to attenuate the total negative impact of carbon emissions. In addition, the lack of consistency of the results across the selected countries suggests that PC income and carbon emissions levels are greatly dispersed. Causal relations align with the underlying results, and policy recommendations are discussed.
Published Version
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