Liton Chandra Voumik, Md. Hasanur Rahman, Shohel Md. Nafi, Md. Akter Hossain, Abdul Rahim Ridzuan, Nora Yusma Mohamed Yusoff
The main purpose of this study was to examine how tourism, GDP, renewable energy, and fossil fuels cause environmental damage. This study examined ten African countries between 1997 and 2021 to test the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory. Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia, Mauritius, Ghana, Uganda, and Nigeria are the ten African countries with the most tourists. In this paper, the augmented mean group (AMG), mean group (MG), and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) models were used to deal with slope heterogeneity (SH), cross-sectional dependence (CSD), and a mix of first-differenced and level stationary variables. Though the inverted U-shaped exists, the findings are significant only for MG. The impact of renewable energy is favorable for the environment and significant for the AMG estimator. Inversely, impact of tourist arrivals and fossil fuels are detrimental for environment and significant. Based on the findings for each country, the tourism-based EKC theory only works for Kenya, Egypt, and Tanzania. The research found that using more renewable energy minimizes CO2 emissions more effectively in almost all countries except Morocco and Ghana. Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda’s CO2 emissions increase when more tourists come from other countries. For the sake of both tourism and the environment, the government must reconsider its tourism policies and implement ones that include renewable energy. The findings of this study assist in the transition to clean energy, aiding in sustainable tourism growth. As a result, selected countries should develop a new tourism plan that focuses on renewable energy sources and protects the environment. © 2023 by the authors.
Department of Economics, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, 3814, Bangladesh; Department of Economics, Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib University, Jamalpur, 2000, Bangladesh; Department of Economics, Comilla University, Cumilla, 3506, Bangladesh; Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, 3814, Bangladesh; Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Melaka Campus, Alor Gajah, 78000, Malaysia; Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; Institute for Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia; Centre for Economic Development and Policy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, 88400, Malaysia; Institute for Research on Socio Economic Policy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia; Accounting Research Institute, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia; Institute of Energy Policy and Research, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang, 43000, Malaysia