This paper aims to analyse the nexus between tourism activities, including tourists’ circulation, accommodation or entertainment, and environmental degradation. Consequently, the conceptual framework captures the complexity of the nexus between tourism and the environment, given that tourism activities can be performed by tourists or for tourists and that tourism depends on the environmental quality, and, consequently, we highlight the impact of tourism activities on biodiversity loss through the pollution effects that they generate, i.e., air pollution, water pollution, or noise pollution, as well as their contribution to waste increase or to the depletion of natural resources. To achieve this goal, we apply structural equation modelling based on partial least squares analysis (PLS). The results based on tourists’ opinions highlight the existence of a direct and significant nexus between tourists’ activities and environmental degradation, with many implications and consequences.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of economic growth, digitalisation, eco-innovation, energy consumption and patents on environmental technologies on the volume of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) recorded in European countries for a period of nine years (2010–2018).Design/methodology/approach: Two empirical methods were integrated into the theoretical approach developed based on the analysis of the current scientific framework. Multiple linear regression, an extended version of the OLS model, and a non-causal analysis as a robustness method, Dumitrescu–Hurlin, were used to achieve the proposed research objective.Findings: Digitalisation described by the number of individual Internet users and patents on environmental technologies determines the amount of GHG in Europe, and economic growth continues to have a significant effect on the amount of emissions, as well as the consumption of renewable energy. European countries are not framed in well-established patterns, but the economic growth, digitalisation, eco-innovation and renewable energy have an impact on the amount of GHG in one way or another. In many European countries, the amount of GHGs is decreasing as a result of economic growth, changes in the energy field and digitalisation. The positive influence of economic growth on climate neutrality depends on its degree of sustainability, while patents have the same conditional effect of their translation into environmentally efficient technologies.Research limitations/implications: This study has a number of limitations which derive, first of all, from the lack of digitalisation indicators. The missing data restricted the inclusion in the analysis of variables relevant to the description of the European digitalisation process, also obtaining conclusive results on the effects of digitalisation on GHG emissions.Originality/value: A similar analysis of the relationship among the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and economic growth, digitalisation, eco-innovation and renewable energy is less common in the literature. Also, the results can be inspirational in the sphere of macroeconomic policy.

Economic and social progress is directly and closely related to energy consumption. In the latest decades, there is a higher need to reduce energy consumption from conventional sources, replacing it with energy obtained from unconventional sources. The environmental concern is one of the objectives of the European economic policy, with a particular focus on renewable energy consumption and energy efficiency in order to lower the environmental impact. In this context, we analyzed energy consumption per capita and renewable energy consumption per capita in the EU with the help of parametric methods, using the β-convergence model, and semiparametric methods, using the σ-convergence model. In this research we proposed to study six analysis models of the period 1960–2015, based on the availability of data. We concluded that the EU states went through a convergence process in a slow pace of energy consumption per capita and renewable energy per capita, showing a convergence pattern. The results of the study show that there is a relationship between the convergence of conventional energy consumption and the convergence of renewable (unconventional) energy consumption. The study covers a long period of time in which EU member states had different economic and social systems, implicitly different degrees and rates of development. In addition, the interest in renewable energy is relatively recent in the whole world. There is a possibility that future research will provide more optimistic results, in terms of accelerating the convergence rate, as appropriate measures and technologies are applied to renewable energy production in all EU member states.

This research investigates the relationships between climate change, biodiversity and nature-based tourism in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DDBR), integrating the behavioural perspective of Generation Z into an adaptive management framework. This study uses a mixed methodological approach, combining time series analysis of the period 2000–2025 with behavioural modelling, based on the primary data study. The analysis of this study includes indicators for the four complementary dimensions, namely: the climate dimension, the biodiversity dimension, the tourism activity dimension, and the behavioural dimension. The relationships among climate variables, biodiversity and tourism are investigated using AutoRegressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) models, while the behavioural component is analysed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method, applied to a sample of 419 respondents. The results highlight the existence of relationships among climate change, biodiversity and tourist activity, confirming the role of biodiversity as a central element of the attractiveness of nature-based tourism. At the same time, concern for biodiversity significantly influences the intention to visit natural destinations among Generation Z people. Therefore, our research contributes to the literature regarding socio-ecological systems and provides recommendations for the development of adaptive management aimed at biodiversity conservation and strengthening the resilience of sustainable tourism in the Danube Delta.

This study seeks to develop a typology of tourists according to their attitude and behaviour in relation to the natural environment. A sur­vey was conducted on a sample of tourists in one of the representative nat­ural tourist areas of Romania based on a face-to-face questionnaire. The typology of green tourists has been created based on 28 items measuring consumer or participatory behaviour. The study provides a segmentation of tourists into three eco-types: eco-destructive, eco-impartial, and eco-in­volved. These segments were analysed by gender, age and level of studies in order to observe specific similarities or differences set for each criterion. The main findings on the impact of tourist activity on the environment un­derline the importance for tourists to be more careful and concerned about solving the environment and enhancing green behaviour.