title: Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context.
abstract: This study investigates empirically an extended version of the Environmental Kuznets Curve model that controls for tourism development. We find that international tourist arrivals into Turkey alongside income, squared income and energy consumption, cointegrate with CO2 emissions. Tourist arrivals, growth, and energy consumption exert a positive and significant impact on CO2 emissions in the long-run. Our results provide empirical support to EKC hypothesis showing that at exponential levels of growth, CO2 emissions decline. The findings suggest that despite the environmental degradation stemming from tourism development, policies aimed at environmental protection should not be pursued at the expense of tourism-led growth.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Glauco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de Vita
authors.affiliation: Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, P.O. Box. 99628, Via Mersin 10, Turkey. salihk@emu.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Salih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Katircioglu
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Altinay
authors.affiliation: Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, P.O. Box. 99628, Via Mersin 10, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sami
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fethi
authors.affiliation: Hakkari University, Hakkari, Turkey.|Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mercan
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011640:Public Policy; D014195:Travel; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide
keywords: CO2 emissions; Environmental Kuznets curve; Tourism development; Turkey