Tourism has become one of the most important sectors in many countries, significantly contributing to their economic growth and development. However, the expansion of tourism has also brought about various environmental and social challenges. The relationship between tourism, economic growth, trade openness, and the environment is diverse and complex. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the international tourism development index, GDP per capita, CO₂ emissions, trade openness index as well as the energy intensity index in EU 27, over the 1995–2019 period. A composite index for international tourism was developed using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Panel Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach is used to reveal the long- and short-run impact of GDP per capita, CO₂ emissions, trade openness index as well as the energy intensity index on the tourism development index. Panel ARDL estimates confirm some of our research hypotheses: at the level of EU countries, there is a short-run relationship between tourism and GDP per capita, but only in a few EU countries, trade openness influences tourism development index. Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test confirms long-run feedback relationship between tourism development index and trade openness, between tourism development index and CO₂ emissions, and between tourism development index and GDP and unilateral causality running from tourism development index towards energy efficiency.

The hospitality sector, especially the hotel business, is at a crossroads. Dynamic business environments, rivalries, and isomorphisms in service operations are significant challenges for hotel enterprises. Fostering employee creativity is undoubtedly something that can well position a hotel in the face of competition. Research shows that corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions of employees for an enterprise can motivate them to be engaged in creativity. At the same time, it has also been mentioned that corporate leaders could significantly influence the behavior of employees. Nevertheless, employee creativity in a CSR framework has not been well-explored in a hospitality context. Moreover, the role of leadership, especially inclusive leadership styles, has been less discussed to spur employee creativity from a CSR perspective. To bridge the above knowledge gaps, this study investigates the relationship between CSR and employee creativity with the mediating effect of inclusive leadership in the hotel industry of a developing economy. Moreover, the conditional indirect effect of employee polychronicity was also tested in the proposed mediated relationship. For data collection, an adapted questionnaire was taken into consideration by employing a paper–pencil method (n = 427). A hypothetical model was refined and validated through structural equation modeling (SEM). The results confirmed that CSR can drive employee creativity significantly, and inclusive leadership partially mediates this relationship. It was also realized that polychronicity has a significant conditional indirect effect on the above-mediated relationship. These outcomes contribute to improvements in the hotel management, as well-designed CSR activities both improve the hotel’s image as an ethical enterprise and increase creativity among employees.

Ince 2010, the European Commission, through the Communication “Europe, No1 World Tourism Destination – A New Political Framework for Tourism in Europe”, has drawn the attention to the fact that local / urban tourism strategies should be essential to the way in which cities promote or limit the extension of tourism services; thus, the increase in the number of tourists in cities and the lack of local tourism policies can lead to negative pressures on the local (environmental, cultural and social) environment. In the research, we will analyze how the explosive economic growth trend of the analyzed region (in our case due to the massive absorption of European funds for urban infrastructure and for industrial development) has positively or negatively affected the tourism sector of the area. The objective of the research will be: identification of local officials with the elaboration and implementation of sustainable tourism policies related to sustainability and identification of specific factors of influence – local vision on sustainability, local action instruments and, implicitly, the tourist flow generated compared to the economic growth level of the region. From a methodological point of view, the research combines two levels of analysis: the comparative analysis of local economic development plans and strategies with local tourism policies as well as the comparative analysis of economic growth indicators of the region with the tourism indicators for the chosen period. A comparison between local development strategies and local tourism policies allows us to identify whether the growth of the tourist phenomenon in the region is a mere consequence of the development of the region or it is based on a strategic thinking of tourism development. The idea behind this research is based on the fact that other studies have demonstrated that the notion of sustainable tourism in major European cities remains out of the local political agenda, without discussing possible conflicts between urban tourism and negative externalities.

The present paper intends to present the evolution registered in the ICSID – International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes – cases during FY2020, comparing with the historical evolution, in order to identify the possible effect of COVID 19 on the dynamics of registering and administrating cases and also in the hearings, if any. Many economic sectors had been deeply affected by the pandemic, and they have shown a real capability to adapt their way of acting and doing things. International arbitration made no difference, and it showed a real adaptive capacity, allowing the existing cases to follow their path and also registering new cases without delays. In 16 April 2020 the leading organisation of arbitration (the CRCICA, DIS, ICC, ICDR/AAA, ICSID, KCAB, LCIA, MCA, HKIAC, SCC, SIAC, VIAC and the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions) released a common statement on COVID 19: “Collaboration is particularly important as each of our institutions looks to ensure that we make the best use of digital technologies for working remotely.” The first element to be notice in the 2020 ICSID Statistics is the fact that the number of the cases registered during 2020 had touched a new record, 58 new cases. The previous record was of 56, and was registered in 2018, meanwhile in 2019 there were registered 39 new cases. One big difference occurred in the way of holding the hearings, in the last 9 months of the year 2020, all the hearings were held remotely, 78% by video and 22% by phone. ICSID had developed and used their one video conferencing platform. In terms of industry, States parties involved, proceedings outcomes, nationality of arbitrators appointed there were some evolutions but with no significant changes.