The Tourism-Based Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: Evidence From the Turkish Economy

This study aimed to determine the impact of tourism on environmental pollution and test the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for the Turkish economy based on data from 1975–2018 in cubic form by observing the impacts of tourism indicators on the environment. We analyzed the correlations among per-capita ecological footprint, international tourist arrivals, per capita GDP, the social globalization index, and urbanization rate using the ARDL limit test. Based on our research, we have found evidence that during the study period, there is an N-shaped correlation between tourist arrivals and ecological footprint in the Turkish economy. This contradicts the idea of an inverted U-shaped Kuznets curve for both the short- and long-term. Our findings reveal that domestic and national policies to fight against pollution need to be developed rather than wasting time by waiting for the end of the relationship between tourist arrivals and environmental pollution after a certain milestone.