Estimating tourism-induced energy consumption and CO2 emissions: The case of Cyprus

The present study investigates the long-run equilibrium relationship among international tourism, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), and the direction of causality among these variables in the case of a small island, Cyprus, which attracts more than 2 million international tourists every year. Results from “tourism-induced models” reveal that international tourism is in a long-run equilibrium relationship with energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions; international tourist arrivals have positive, statistically significant, and inelastic impacts on the level of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissons (which means negative impact for climate change). Error correction models reveal that carbon dioxide emission converges to its long-term equilibrium path by 95.4 percent speed of adjustment through the channels of tourism and energy consumption while, on the other hand, energy consumption converges to its long-term equilibrium path by 13.5 percent speed of adjustment through the channels of tourism and CO2 emissions. Finally, the major finding from conditional Granger causality tests is that international tourism is a catalyst for energy consumption and for an increase in the level of carbon dioxide emissions in Cyprus.