Effects of international tourism on environmental quality and renewable energy use in Africa: a study of the moderating role of governance institutions

This study investigated how international tourism is impacting on environmental quality and renewable energy use in Africa, and how governance institutions on the continent are moderating these relationships. We employed the system GMM technique with a panel of 31 African economies from 2011 to 2020. We find that while international tourism is not a significant driver of environmental quality in Africa, it is significantly hampering renewable energy use on the continent. We also find that even though the unconditional effects of governance institutions on environmental quality are predominantly muted, their moderation role in the tourism-environmental quality relationship indicates that they offer potent channels for enhancing the contribution of the tourism sector toward improved environmental quality in Africa. Our results further indicate that governance institutions in Africa are significantly hampering the use of renewable energy, while their moderation role on the tourism-renewable energy use relationship is mainly muted. These findings generally highlight the fact that Africa is yet to harness its tourism potentials, while simultaneously dealing with the challenge of weak governance institutions. Among others, we recommended that policymakers and leaders in Africa should work together to harness the tourism potentials of the region and improve the quality of governance institutions.