Investigating the nexus between CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption and pilgrimage tourism in Saudi Arabia

Ozturk I., ASLAN A., Altinoz B.

Economic Research-Ekonomska Istrazivanja, cilt.35, sa.1, ss.3083-3098, 2022 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 35 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/1331677x.2021.1985577
  • Dergi Adı: Economic Research-Ekonomska Istrazivanja
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ABI/INFORM, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, CAB Abstracts, Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), EconLit, Geobase, INSPEC, Veterinary Science Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.3083-3098
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: CO2, pilgrimage tourism, energy consumption, Saudi Arabia, INTERNATIONAL TOURISM, COINTEGRATION, CAUSALITY, PANEL, DEMAND, AUTHENTICITY, INSTABILITY, INFERENCE, GDP
  • Kayseri Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Every year millions of Muslims go to Saudi Arabia to fulfil pilgrimage worship, thus Saudi Arabia is such a religious centre brings with it various consequences. In this context, this paper investigates the nexus between CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption and pilgrimage tourism in Saudi Arabia for the period of 1968–2017. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and fully-modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) methods are employed in this study. FMOLS results prove that energy consumption, number of pilgrims and oil prices have a positive effect on CO2 emissions and GDP has a negative effect on it, while DOLS results imply that only energy consumption has a positive effect on carbon emissions. In addition, there is unidirectional causality from CO2 to pilgrimage tourism and from pilgrimage tourism to oil, and there is bidirectional causality between pilgrimage tourism and GDP. Therefore, the environmental cost of pilgrimage tourism is inevitable. Reflections of pilgrimage visits to Saudi Arabia as a belief tourism are dealt with for the first time in this paper. In addition, our more specific purpose is to determine the environmental impacts of Muslims performing the pilgrimage, during their religious worship.