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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Climate Crossroads: Exploring the Environmental
Impact of Tourism and Urbanization on Ecological
Footprints in Asia-Pacific
1
International Business School, Guangzhou City University of Technology, Guangzhou 510800, China
2
Department of Recreology and Tourism, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove,
Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
3
Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Sahiwal
4
Faculty of Business, and Communications INTI International University, Persiaran Perdana BBN Putra Nilai,
71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
5
School of Jewelry, Guangzhou City University of Technology, Guangzhou 510800, China
6
Faculty of Liberal Arts, Shinawatra University, 99 Moo 10, Bangtoey, Samkhok, Pathum Thani, Thailand 12160
Submission date: 2024-07-06
Final revision date: 2024-09-19
Acceptance date: 2024-11-10
Online publication date: 2025-01-24
Publication date: 2026-01-29
Corresponding author
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2026;35(1):29-41
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Since the mid-20th century, Environmental Degradation (ED) has been a paramount concern
for humanity. Numerous researchers have found an association between various human activities
and ED indicators. This paper aims to analyze the impact of tourism, urbanization, and Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) on the Ecological Footprint (EF) and CO2 emissions in nine Asia-Pacific
countries over 22 years. The theoretical foundations of this study are based on externality theory
and public/common good theories that explain the cost of ED by certain human activities.
We have employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Non-Linear Autoregressive
Distributed Lag (NARDL), and the Johansen co-integration techniques to see whether long-run
causality exists between tourism, urbanization, FDI inflows, and the ED indicators. The findings
reveal a long-run causality between tourism, urbanization, EF, and CO2 territorial emissions
in Asia-Pacific countries. The empirical outcomes also show a significant impact of tourism
activities and urbanization on EF and CO2 emissions. Moreover, a moderately significant long-run
causality exists in the sample countries except for Japan. These findings suggest that governments
and lawmakers should be concerned about the environmental consequences of tourism
and urbanization-related activities and enact policy measures to preserve their ecosystems.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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