Tourism development, environmental regulations, and natural resource management: Evidence from G20 countries

The rapid development in the tourism sector across the globe has posed significant challenges for the conservation and management of natural resources, necessitating the implementation of effective environmental regulations. In this perspective, to add empirical evidence in the academic literature, this study aims to investigate the role of tourism development and environmental regulations in the management of natural resources in the G20 countries. To serve the objective, this paper takes the data of G20 countries over the period of 1995-2020 and employ FGLS and PCSE econometric techniques for empirical estimations. The results have shown that tourism development, environmental regulations, environmental protection technologies, and government regulatory quality interventions have a positive impact on natural resources management. However, natural resource depletion has a negative impact on the protection of natural resources. The results were significant when both a common AR(1) model and a panel-specific AR(1) model were used. Although the slope coefficients vary slightly, the estimates are comparable using the Prais-Winsten and Driscoll-Kraay standard error regressions. The findings of the study hold promising insights for policy formation in G20 countries for developing environmental and tourism policies to manage the natural resources for the future generations.