Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2025
Department
College of Business
Abstract
Ecological sustainability, energy consumption, tourism, and economic growth interact in complex ways, a pressing concern for modern policy and study. Using data from 1999 to 2023, this study looks at the top 10 tourist destinations to see how these variables relate to their environmental impact. The primary regression analysis employs the Driscoll-Kraay Standard Errors (DKSE) approach, while Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) are used for robustness checks. The DKSE results show that a 1 % increase in economic development reduces the ecological footprint by 0.775 %. Similarly, renewable energy minimizes the EFP by 0.140 %, and trade openness shows the most substantial effect, reducing it by 1.503 %. On the contrary, tourism and gross fixed capital formation raise EFP by 0.003 % and 0.905 %, respectively. All results are statistically significant at the 1 % level and verified by FGLS and PCSE robustness checks. The findings highlight the importance of sustainable trade policy, energy-efficient technology adoption, and sustainable tourist practices to reduce negative environmental consequences without sacrificing economic development.
Publication Title
Innovation and Green Development
Recommended Citation
Waaje, A.,
Roshid, M.,
Islam, S.,
Chandra Bhowmik, R.,
Rahaman, M.,
&
Hassan, M.
(2025).
Tourism, trade, energy, and economic development: Drivers of ecological footprint in the World's top tourist destinations.
Innovation and Green Development,
4(3).
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.igd.2025.100249
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/1694
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.igd.2025.100249