THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON TOURISM IN THAILAND

Abstract

Air pollution not only affects people's health but also tourism especially in Thailand because it is the most important industry in Thailand. Therefore, this research aims to examine the effects of air pollution on the number of tourists using particulate matter (PM10) data as the proxy for air pollution and the number of tourists staying at accommodation establishments in the province as the agent of the number of tourists (Tourist). Furthermore, the effect of the price of tourism factor represented by the consumer price index (CPI); and the weather factor with indicators such as rainfall (RAIN) and highest temperature (TMAX), on the number of tourists were also considered. The research data were panel form, and the cross-section data were collected from seven significant tourist provinces representing each region with the time series during March 2018 to December 2021. These data were tested for cross-section dependence and the panel unit root test. After that, the long- and short-term relationships were detected by using the panel autoregressive distribution lag (Panel ARDL) model with the pool mean group (PMG). The findings revealed that the increase of PM10, CPI, TMAX and RAIN reduced the number of tourists.