Environmental consequences of tourism: do oil-exporting countries import more CO2 emissions?

The study explores the impact of international tourism on consumption-based CO2 emissions in the case of Azerbaijan for the period of 1995-2013. The results of the long-run estimations revealed that the relationship between CO2 emissions and international tourism revenues is N-shaped. This finding also indicates that the EKC hypothesis does not hold in the case of Azerbaijan. The found curvature of the relationship and the positive impact of tourism on CO2 emissions are in line with the expectations, considering the developing path of the country. Moreover, the impacts of imports and exports are found to be positive and negative, respectively, which are in line with the expectations and with the theoretical findings discussed in the theoretical framework section. The positive impact of tourism and the higher impact of imports highlights the importance of utilizing the environmentally friendly policies in tourism activities as well as in international trade relations.