The importance of sustainable tourism in environmental literature is well documented, while there is a need to explore its different socio-economic and environmental factors that are helpful to promote sustainable development across countries. The objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between international tourism (ITOUR), energy demand (ED), carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), and economic growth (EG) by using a panel data of top 10 tourism-induced countries for the period of 1995-2016. The findings confirmed the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the panel of top 10 countries. Moreover, the results show that FDI inflows negatively influenced natural environment in the form of high mass carbon emissions, which supported "pollution haven hypothesis (PHH)." The energy demand escalates carbon emissions across countries. The study confirmed the feedback relationship between (i) tourism income (TI) and ED, and (ii) CO2 emissions and international tourism departures (ITD), while study supported the growth-led tourism income across countries. The study concludes that government(s) should have to focus on ecotourism policies and energy resources in a way to mitigate carbon emissions that is imperative for sustainable development across countries.
Keywords: CO2 emissions; EKC hypothesis; Energy demand; International tourism; Panel cointegration; Pollution haven hypothesis; Trade openness.