This paper is the first of its kind to measure the income level of a country’s tourist arrival and empirically examine its impact on economic growth and environmental pollution in a sample of eight Mediterranean countries. The paper undertakes annual data from 1995 to 2014 and employs quantile regression models, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimations, and a heterogeneity causality test. The empirical results show that the income level of a country’s tourist arrival, across all quantiles, plays an important role in promoting economic development. However, the role of the income level of a country’s tourist arrival on environmental pollution varies with the changes in quantiles. More specifically, income level of a country’s tourist arrival has a positive impact on environmental pollution for the lower quantiles, while it has a negative impact for higher quantiles. The findings from panel ARDL models confirm that the income level of a country’s tourist arrival has positive and negative impacts on economic growth and emissions, respectively. Given these results, these findings provide information to take the necessary actions to ensure sustainable tourism development, i.e., the expansion of the tourism industry without harming the environment in the Mediterranean countries.

This study analyzes urbanization, disasters, and their impact on tourism development for RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) countries. We use ADF (Augmented Dickey-Fuller) and PP (Phillips-Perron) tests, causality tests, quantile regression, and fixed-effect panel models on data from 1995-2018. Empirical results show that urbanization does not help tourism development in the low quantiles but does help in the high quantiles. Disaster-preventive measures and post-disaster reconstruction help the development of tourism. However, in developed countries, disasters are not conducive to the development of tourism. Urbanization is the Granger cause of tourism and carbon emissions. The increase in temperature, rainfall, and carbon emissions caused by urbanization do not contribute to the development of tourism. Based on this, we have proposed a series of urbanization development and disaster defense measures to promote the sustainable development of tourism in RCEP countries.