Environmental Impacts of Tourism A Case Study of Selected Developing and Developed Countrie

In recent decades, the growth of the tourism industry has been one of the most important factors in increasing economic activity in the world. Tourism based environmental issues have been always considered. The main purpose of the present study is to examine the environmental effect of tourism in 55 selected developing (including Iran) and developed countries during 2005-2012. For this, panel data method has been used. The results indicate that the impact of tourism on the environmental performance is positive for developed countries, while the effect is negative in developing countries. The other results of this study show that energy intensity, the urban population, the Industry, value added and the Population density have a negative and significant effect on the environment while the human development index and the degree of trade openness have a positive impact on environmental performance. According on the results, developing tourism is recommended, but the environmental performance should be priority to create sustainability in the industry.
According to the annual report issued by WTO in 2015, the number of tourists in 1980 was only 280 million. In 1995, that number increased to 528 million, while nowadays, demands in this sector have increased fast and the number of tourists in 2014 has reached 1.1333 billion, increasing the earnings in this area to $1245 billion. All these measures and statistics indicate a developing and accelerating trend in tourism industry. However, such developing and accelerating trend has increased environmental concerns. Increasing trend in tourism industry and the importance of the environmental phenomena within the past few decades together with the ramifications of such a trade on the environment, studies on the effects of tourism on the environment seem essential and of great importance. Now, the question is “what are the effects of tourism on the environment within developing and developed countries?”
Some scholars have differing views regarding the impacts of tourism on industry. Some believe that developments in tourism (as a factor leading to the enhancement and improvement of lifestyle) have positive impacts on the environment. On the other hand, some others argue that tourism is accompanied with the process of destroying the environment resulting from the overuse by people, overuse of natural resources, and pollution. Therefore, the second group of scholars believe that developments in tourism would result in negative consequences for the environment.
In order to test the research hypotheses, panel data method was applied. This method combining time series and cross-sectional, information-rich environment for the development of estimation methods and provides the theoretical results. To choose between methods of compilation least squares, Fixed Effects (FE) and Random Effects (RE) Chow test (F- Limer) and Hausman test is used. According to statistics, the Hausman test, the null hypothesis that there is a random effects model to estimate confirmed and fixed effects approach is rejected.
In order to assess the impacts of tourism on the environment, the following model has been applied:
In the above model, EPI represents the environmental performance index of a country, HDI is the human development index, EI is the energy intensity, INDUS is the Industry, value added, POP is the Population density, URB is the index of urbanization ratio, OPEN is the degree of openness for trade economy, and TOUR is the index for the tourism (the number of tourists in each country). Furthermore, is the error component. Data regarding INDUS, URB, POP, OPEN, and TOUR have been obtained from the official website of the World Bank. In addition data related to EPI, HDI, and EI have been obtained from Yale University, United Nations Development Program, and International Energy Statistics (a website), respectively.
It has to be mentioned that in model 1, the index of human development represented the role of such variables as income per capita, education, and health and has a significant impact on the environment (Gürlük, 2009; Samimi et al., 2011). In addition, increase in energy intensity could lead to the destruction of environments (Alam et al., 2007; Shim, 2006) since a major amount of greenhouse gases released around the world is in the form of CO2 that arises as a result of burning fossil fuels. With regard to the impact of urbanization ratio and the degree of economic openness, differing views exist. In other words, some scholars consider the role of such variables as positive, while some others consider them as harmful.
Discussion and Findings of model 1, obtained by the application of Panel data show that in developed countries, tourism has a positive impact on the environment. Nonetheless, it has damaging impacts on the environment of developing nations. Therefore, the hypothesis in the current study is confirmed for developing countries. Findings obtained regarding the damaging impacts of tourism on the environments of developing countries are in line with hypotheses put forward by Goudie and Viles (2013). In addition, the positive impact of tourism on the environment of developed countries confirms the hypotheses put forward by Mieczkowsky (1995). Considering the fact that the HDI is positive, it could plays a major role in the enhancement of EPI. and degree of trade openness has a positive and significant effect on the environment. energy intensity, the urban population and the industry value added, Population density have a negative and significant effect on the environment of developing and developed countries.
The aim of conducting the current study was to investigate the impact of tourism on the environment. For this purpose, 55 countries (developing and developed) over the years 2005-2012 were selected and the theory of negative impacts of tourism on the environment was tested on them by the application of panel data method.
According to the findings obtained, HDI and OPEN had a significantly positive impact on the environments of both groups of countries. The energy intensity, Population density and urban population had a negative and significant impact on the environment of selected countries. In addition, industry value added and the Population density showed a negative impact on the environment. The impact of tourism on the environment for both groups of countries was obtained differently. Specifically, the impact in developing countries was significantly negative. Therefore, the following could be suggested within the framework of findings in the current study:In addition, it seems that control and optimization of fuel consumption, promotion of environmental culture and introduction of environmental programs, public involvement, and the promotion of tourism culture are essential.