Green Growth and Sustainability: The Role of Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Service Industry in Korea

Purpose - The study investigates the influence of tourism and hospitality industry on economic growth and CO2 emissions. Research design, data, and methodology - In the empirical analysis,unit root tests, cointegration test and vector error correction model regression using time series data of South Korea from the first quarter of 1970 to the third quarter of 2010 are performed to examine the long-run equilibrium relationship and short-run dynamics among the tourism and hospitality industry, CO2 emissions, economic growth and other industry sectors. Results - Results indicate that a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables. Furthermore, the tourism and hospitality industry and CO2 emissions have high significant positive effect on economic growth. The tourism and hospitality industry in Korea,in turns, shows a high significant positive impact on economic growth while the industry sector incursa high significant negative impact on CO2 emissions. Conclusions - The tourism and hospitality industry in Korea may havebeen prompted by several factors such as accelerated process of technological innovation or energy and environmental policies. These findings suggest that the effectively managed tourism and hospitality sector in Korea has resulted in both economic growth and a reduction in CO2 emissions. KCI Citation Count: 10