Effect of tourism on environmental pollution: Further evidence from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. (20th July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Azam, Muhammad; Mahmudul Alam, Md; Haroon Hafeez, Muhammad
• Is Part Of: Journal of cleaner production. Volume 190(2018)
• Page Start: 330
• Page End: 338
• Publication Date: 2018-07-20
• Subjects: Tourism -- Environmental pollution -- Sustainable development; L83 -- Q5 -- Q01; Factory and trade waste -- Management -- Periodicals; Manufactures -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Déchets industriels -- Gestion -- Périodiques; Usines -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; 628.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.168
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-6526

Abstract

Abstract: An increasing number of studies reveal that tourism industry makes a substantial contribution towards socioeconomic growth and development of tourism led economies. However, tourism steered economic growth and development is achieved at the cost of environmental pollution and degradation. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of tourists' arrivals on environmental pollution caused by Carbon Dioxide emissions in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore over the period of 1990–2014. Some other regressors namely energy consumption and income are also used in the multivariate model. The Zivot–Andrews test is employed to determine unit-root and presence of structural break in the data. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares estimator is used as an analytical technique for unknown parameters estimation. The empirical results reveal that tourism has a significant positive effect on environmental pollution in Malaysia. However, an inverse relationship between tourism and environmental pollution is observed in Thailand and Singapore. Empirical findings suggest that sustainable economic growth and development should be ensured by implementing prudent public policy where host governments must strive to promote socially and environmentally responsible tourism industries in their respective countries. Highlights: Examines the effect of tourism on environmental pollution in selected ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore). The method of FMOLS estimator is used as an analytical technique. The effect of tourism on environment is found significantly positive in Malaysia, while negative for Thailand and Singapore Empirical findings suggest that sustainable economic growth should be ensured by implementing prudent public policies.