Over the years, policymakers in tourism-reliant economies have been saddled with the mandate to not only accelerate economic growth but also increase the living standards of domestic citizens. Tourism development has been highlighted in the extant literature as a route to attaining sustainable economic growth. Past studies affirm that tourism contributes significantly to both the wealth of nations and cultural diffusion. However, whether institutional quality moderates the impact of tourism on economic growth has yet to be given sufficient academic attention. The study uses data from 2002 to 2017 and the generalised method of moments methodology, while the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test is applied to check the robustness of results. The empirical results show that a 1% increase in tourist arrivals or air transport led to a 0.41% and 0.17% increase in economic growth, respectively. However, when particular governance variables are taken into consideration, this impact is reduced to −0.09% and −0.02% for both tourism proxies. This implies that the influence of governance on the tourism-led growth hypothesis through an interaction term between institutional quality and tourist arrivals was found to reverse the impact of tourism on growth from positive to negative in both high-earning and tourism-dependent countries. While infrastructure also contributes to economic growth, its impact is slightly higher in top earners than in tourism-dependent economies. The results of the study suggest that weak institutions in both country groups allow corrupt practices, which divert the positive impact that tourism should have on economic growth.

This study empirically examines the effect of economic development on carbon emissions and revisits the environmental Kuznets curve in Suzhou, China. The study made use of the Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDPPC) of Suzhou, China as an indicator of economic development as it depicts the entire developmental ecosystem that indicates the level of production activities and total energy consumption. Bearing this in mind, the authors postulate that economic development directly increases carbon emissions through industrial and domestic consumptions. For this purpose, linear and non-linear approaches to cointegration are applied. The study finds the existence of an inverted U-shape relationship between economic development and carbon emission in the long run. Trade openness and industrial share are positively contributing to increasing carbon emissions. Energy use shows a positive sign but an insignificant association with carbon emissions. The study concludes that carbon emissions in Suzhou should be further decreased followed by policy recommendations.