Analysis of the relationship between tourism, green technological innovation and environmental quality in the top 15 most visited countries: evidence from method of moments quantile regression

Abstract

AbstractGlobal warming, climate change and environmental pollution are considered among the important developments that threaten all world economies. In this context, the transition to a zero-emission economy remains one of the environmental sustainability goals of policymakers. The literature investigating the tourism-environmental pollution relationship has limited emphasis on the role of green technological innovation. Therefore, this study explores the effect of tourism and green technological innovation on CO2 emissions in top 15 most visited countries during the period of 1995–2019. Renewable energy consumption, financial development and economic growth are integrated into the CO2 emissions equation as control variables. The cointegration tests verify the existence of a cointegration between variables. The long-run estimaters reveal that tourism, green technological innovation and renewable energy consumption serve to improve environmental quality by reducing CO2 emissions. Contrary to these findings, financial development and economic growth play a role in the increase of CO2 emissions implying a deterioration in environmental quality. The bootstrap causality analysis points to a bidirectional causality between tourism and CO2 emissions and between green technological innovation and CO2 emissions. The findings will make important contributions to policy makers in these countries in meeting their CO2 emissions reduction targets. Graphical Abstract