A View of the Relationship Between Environment and Tourism Through PM2.5: Panel Data Analysis on Selected EU Countries

The relationship between environment and tourism is of great importance for the environmental quality and sustainability of tourist destinations. European Union (EU) countries attract attention with their tourist destinations, cultural heritage, and popular tourism centers known for their natural beauty. PM2.5 is an important environmental indicator for measuring and assessing air quality. In this study, it is aimed to determine the relationship between PM2.5 value and environment and tourism for 15 selected EU countries between 1990 and 2019 by panel analysis. For this purpose, PM2.5, gross domestic product, energy use, tourist arrivals, and trade openness data are the variables used in the study. According to the ARDL long-run coefficient estimation results, a 1% increase in the gross domestic product increases the PM2.5 variable, which represents the dependent variable of the model and environmental pollution, by 0.22%. A 1% increase in the energy utilization rate causes a 0.30% increase in the PM2.5 variable. A 1% increase in tourist arrivals increases environmental pollution by 0.19%. Finally, a 1% increase in trade openness increases environmental pollution by 0.32%.