Does tourism market diversification matter for CO2 emissions? evidence from Singapore

Abstract

This research analyzed the effect of tourism market diversification on Singapore’s CO2 emissions by measuring the level of concentration of source countries in a foreign tourist basket of Singapore using a Herfindahl–Hirschman index. Our results indicated that the index fell over the period 1978–2020, which means the diversification of source countries of Singapore’s foreign tourists increased. By applying the recent bootstrap and quantile ARDL models, we found that tourism market diversification and inward FDI act as stumbling blocks to CO2 emissions. In contrast, economic growth and primary energy consumption increase CO2 emissions. Policy implications are presented and discussed.