Do birds of a feather flock together? Analyzing environmental performance and tourist behavior using a gravity approach

Abstract

This study examines whether international tourism flows are affected by differences in the environmental performance of origin and destination countries by conducting an empirical analysis with a gravity panel dataset of 169 origin countries and 157 destination countries from 2000 to 2015. Estimated results show that the difference between environmental performance of a country pair adversely affects international tourism flows. This implies that tourist behavior is particularly influenced by familiarity, behavior conformity, and the need for virtue-signaling. Results also suggest that better environmental performance of the destination relative to the origin, as captured by an overall environmental performance index or its sub-indices, lowers international tourism more than vice-versa. This effect potentially hinges on the tradeoff between functionality and the image of the international tourist destination. Policies that create an enabling milieu for sustainable tourism and environmental practices—such as ecolabeling and targeted advertising—would help attract more environmentally conscious tourists.

Retrospective Statistical Study of Dependencies in The Formation of Tourist Flows

“…Sichka (2016) analyzed the state of the tourism market development in Ukraine and the influence of the tourism sector on the country's economy, identified issues and outlined prospects for the development of the tourism market based on the analysis of tourist flows. Shafiullah et al (2022) investigated the influence of environmental indicators of countries of origin and destination on international tourist flows through empirical analysis using a panel dataset of gravity data from 169 countries of origin and 157 countries of destination spanning from 2000 to 2015. Shatska and Akulshin (2018) studied the state of the tourism industry in Ukraine for 2000-2017, identified factors that contribute to the development of domestic and foreign tourism and increase the tourism potential of Ukraine.…”