Global difference in the relationships between tourism, economic growth, CO2 emissions, and primary energy consumption

Understanding the difference of the multi-relationships between tourism, environment, and economic growth is an effective way to reduce inequality, but little is known about multivariate differences induced by different income levels. Thus, we empirically explored these multi-relationships between tourism, economic growth, CO2 emissions, and primary energy consumption at different development stages using a series of panel models, leading to enlightening results. A cointegration relationship exists between CO2 emissions and all other variables in all countries selected. CO2 emissions in low-income countries increase by 0.084% for a 1% increase in expenditure of inbound tourists per capita, and CO2 emissions in the low-income countries and high-income countries increase by 0.072% and 0.059%, respectively, for a 1% increase in the net inflow of international tourists. In addition, the lower the income countries, the greater the impact of tourism on CO2 emissions and the higher the income countries, the higher the number of feedback Granger causality. Our results imply that the differences in multi-relationships induced by different income levels are of great importance for government policy decisions.