The Impact of Tourism Transportation on The Ecological Footprint: Evidence from The Quantile Co-integration Approach for Emerging Countries

Abstract

Abstract Consumption behaviors of tourists and energy consumption of tourism enterprises can cause environmental damage on nature. While environmental pollution in tourism regions as a result of these environmental deteriorations can affect the decisions of tourists, consumption behaviors of tourists in tourism regions can also affect local environmental quality. In this context, the main motivation of the study is to empirically examine the impact of tourism transportation, which is an important component of national income, on environmental pollution in emerging countries. The number of international tourists’ arrivals is used for the tourism, and the ecological footprint is used for the environmental pollution. The number of international tourists is handled in 3 categories: air, water, and land. Analyzes are carried out for 16 emerging countries covering the period 1995-2018. Engle and Granger (1987) co-integration test and the quantile co-integration test proposed by Xiao (2009) which provides the theoretical basis for examining the asymmetric structure in the data set are used as the analysis method. Compared to the conventional testing methodology, the quantile co-integration test provides more evidence for the existence of a co-integration relationship. Therefore, this indicates the efficiency gain of using quantile methods. The increase in international tourist transportation in all countries with a co-integration relationship increases environmental pollution. In addition, the relationship between variables behaves differently in different quantiles. In this context, it has been concluded that there is an asymmetrical adjustment process depending on the sign and size of the shocks. Lastly, it is found that the effects of air, water, and land transportation types on environmental pollution differ on a country basis.