Does environmental sustainability contribute to tourism growth? An analysis at the country level

As has been demonstrated by international organizations, as well as by scientific literature, the expansion of tourism can cause environmental deterioration, such that tourism has a very high environmental cost in relation to the benefits it brings to those societies hosting it. In such a context, this research aims to investigate the relationships that may exist between the expansion of touristic activity and environmental sustainability, with its main objective being to substantiate that the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability is not unidirectional, as well as to establish that sustainability influences the expansion of touristic activity. For this, structural equation models have been used to measure the possible relationships between tourism growth and environmental sustainability, by using a sample of 139 countries with data from the last ten years. The work shows, in line with the position of international organizations, that the expansion of tourism translates into an environmental deterioration of the destination (risk dimension) and, furthermore, it substantiates that there are specific variables connected to environmental sustainability (regulatory dimension) that contribute to greater tourism growth, so that the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability is bidirectional. Based on these results, stakeholders in a tourist destination should commit to greater compliance with environmental regulations as it translates into growth of touristic activity, as well as to limiting the risk factors that said activity represents for the environment and its potential for future growth. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.