CO₂ Emissions and tourism in developed and less developed countries

Tourism is a major contributor to CO₂ emissions and therefore to climate change. In this article, we look at the relationships between CO₂ emissions and tourism in the context of both developed and less developed countries. We utilize a STIRPAT approach applied to a balanced panel data of developed and less developed countries for the period from 1998 to 2006. The results show that tourism contributes significantly to CO₂ emissions in both less developed and developed countries. However, the impact in developed countries is larger than in less developed countries. Tourism should find sustainable development paths involving less CO₂ emissions in the production and consumption of tourist services.