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Tourism development, energy consumption and environmental quality in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco: a trivariate analysis

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Prior research address socio-economic aspects of tourism industry and little attention has been paid to investigate the impact of tourism development on economic growth, and environmental quality. Accordingly, this study examines the impact of tourism development on economic growth, CO2 emissions and environmental quality in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco (Muslim majority countries). An autoregressive distributed lag model is used to analyze data for the period 1980–2014. The study further examines the long and short-term relationship between tourism and economic growth; and tourism and environmental quality. The study reveals that economic growth converges to its long-run equilibrium at an adjusting speed of about 25.7% in Morocco, 5.8% in Egypt, and 2.1% in Tunisia. The findings of the study confirm that tourism growth is linked to environmental quality. The study reveals that tourism has a negative effect on the environment quality in Egypt whereas a positive effect in Tunisia and neutral in Morocco. Using the EKC hypothesis tests, the study concludes the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between CO2 emissions and the level of income for Morocco and Egypt, whereas for Tunisia, this relationship is U-shaped. The study also offers policy implications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. L.E.A.D (EA 3163) Université du Toulon Var, Toulon, France

    Asma Sghaier

  2. Laboratory Research for Economy, Management and Quantitative Finance (LaREMFiQ), I.H.E.C University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

    Asma Sghaier

  3. Université de Sousse-Tunisie, Sousse, Tunisia

    Asma Guizani

  4. IPAG Business School, Paris, France

    Sami Ben Jabeur

  5. Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University, Rafha Street, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh, 11586, Saudi Arabia

    Mohammad Nurunnabi

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  1. Asma Sghaier
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Correspondence to Mohammad Nurunnabi.

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Sghaier, A., Guizani, A., Ben Jabeur, S. et al. Tourism development, energy consumption and environmental quality in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco: a trivariate analysis. GeoJournal 84, 593–609 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9878-z

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