Using a tourism importance–performance typology to investigate environmental sustainability on a global level

A major issue surrounding the tourism industry is the trade-off between the positive and negative impacts of increased visitation. Countries welcome tourism's positive effects on their economy but fear tourism's impact on culture and environment. There is also debate about tourism's effectiveness in reducing poverty and sharing economic benefits across residents. In this study, 120 countries were grouped on the basis of the relative importance of tourism to their economies and their relative performance in terms of international tourism receipts per capita. Then, the profiles for the categories derived from this tourism importance–performance typology were examined, and their environmental performance compared across categories using indicators that measure environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The majority of countries fell into the categories with a consistent level of importance and performance (i.e. low importance/low performance and high importance/high performance). Overall, the countries in the two high performance categories (i.e. low importance/high performance and high importance/high performance) fared better in terms of environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The results are presented in detail and the policy implications for tourism managers are discussed.