The impacts of the tourism sector on the eco-efficiency of the Latin American and Caribbean countries

Abstract

The impacts of the tourism sector on the overall eco-efficiency of 22 Latin America and Caribbean countries from 1995 to 2016 were examined. A Data Envelopment Analysis was used to calculate the overall eco-efficiency of each country (considering the CO2 emissions as the input and the GDP as the output). Posteriorly, a Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model was applied to analyse the impacts of tourism arrivals, tourism capital investment, and direct tourism contribution to employment on eco-efficiency. The results indicated that tourism arrivals decrease these countries eco-efficiency, both in the short- and long-run. Contrariwise, tourism capital investment and direct tourism contribution to employment seem to promote eco-efficiency in the long-run. These findings recommend that policymakers should respect these destinations carrying capacity and, simultaneously, encourage investments in sustainable tourism projects and productive employment to all.