Does Tourism Affect Sustainable Development in MINT Countries?

Following the failure to achieve Millennium Development Goals by most countries in the world, Sustainable Development Goals are now at the center of developmental issues. Consequently, this study aims to examine if tourism can be an ally to sustainable development in MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey) countries between 1995 and 2018. The study uses adjusted net saving and international tourism receipts in these countries as measures of sustainable development and tourism, respectively. In achieving its objectives, the study employs the augmented mean group (AMG) estimation technique to estimate the long-run parameters. Besides, mean group (MG) and common correlated effects MG techniques are employed to check the robustness of the estimates obtained via the AMG approach. The results from the three estimators show that tourism is indeed an ally to sustainable development in MINT countries since there is a significant positive relationship between tourism and sustainable development. In other words, tourism can put the MINT countries on the path to sustainable development. This implies that any policy that will enhance the performance of the tourism industry will ensure sustainable development in MINT countries. Thus, the governments of MINT countries should focus basically on achieving sustainable tourism development, as this will translate to sustainable development in their countries.