Do birds of a feather flock together? Analyzing environmental performance and tourist behavior using a gravity approach

This study examines whether international tourism flows are affected by differences in the environmental performance of origin and destination countries by conducting an empirical analysis with a gravity panel dataset of 169 origin countries and 157 destination countries from 2000 to 2015. Estimated results show that the difference between environmental performance of a country pair adversely affects international tourism flows. This implies that tourist behavior is particularly influenced by familiarity, behavior conformity, and the need for virtue-signaling. Results also suggest that better environmental performance of the destination relative to the origin, as captured by an overall environmental performance index or its sub-indices, lowers international tourism more than vice-versa. This effect potentially hinges on the tradeoff between functionality and the image of the international tourist destination. Policies that create an enabling milieu for sustainable tourism and environmental practices-such as ecolabeling and targeted advertising-would help attract more environmentally conscious tourists.