The mediating effect of economic factors and energy consumption between tourism and carbon emissions in ASEAN countries

This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of economic factors including Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the energy factor represented by Energy Consumption (EC) on tourism, for which the International Tourism Receipts (ITR) and the carbon emissions (CO2) relationships of ASEAN Countries are proxies by employing panel data of ASEAN countries from 2000 to 2019. The results will be analyzed using the panel ARDL method. The study revealed that there was a relationship between the mediating effect of GDP and EC. However, there only EC partially mediated the impact of TP on CO2. Moreover, there was a long run relationship between TP and GDP, FDI and EC and the impact of TP GDP, FDI and EC on CO2 in the positive direction. To reduce the impact of tourism on CO2 emissions, governments in ASEAN countries may need to design policies that adopt the guidelines of Muslim countries.