It has been of great concern for policymakers and government officials to increase the economic trajectory of living standards. Tourism development over the years is outlined in the extant literature as an alternative pathway to sustainable development. However, there has been no consensus on the combined impact of institutional quality and key macroeconomic indicators and how they moderate tourism development and eradicate poverty. Thus, there is a need to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the end of 2030 to remain focused on areas for policymakers and researchers. To achieve this goal, this study examines the moderating effect of governance quality on the relationship between tourism and poverty alleviation using a panel of 15 Latin American countries over the period 2003–2015 using fixed effect (FE) as an estimation technique. For soundness of analysis, we applied the Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) model estimation, the two-system generalized method of moment (GMM) model estimation in this study. Our findings show that governance quality contributes to poverty reduction, while tourism development exacerbates poverty. Interestingly, the results reveal that tourism and governance quality have complementary impacts in alleviating poverty. Further, policy prescriptions are outlined in the concluding section.

Despite the growing attention on the tourism development-income inequality nexus, a conspicuous gap in the literature is that rigorous empirical works examining how good governance moderates the relationship are hard to find. Anchoring on the trickle-down theory and the tourism-led growth hypothesis, this study fills this void in the literature based on data for 48 African countries for the period 1996–2020. We provide strong evidence robust to several specifications from the GMM estimator to show that, though unconditionally both tourism development and governance reduce income inequality in Africa, the effect of the former is amplified in the presence of good economic, political and institutional governance. Particularly, we find that control of corruption and political stability are keys for propelling Africa’s tourism sector to contribute to the equalization of incomes across the continent. Policy recommendations are provided in line with SDG 10, and Aspirations 1 and 3 of Africa’s Agenda 2063.

This paper examines the nexus between tourism revenue and economic growth to the Republic of Benin throughout for 1995–2015. Specifically, this document examines the dynamic link between the three variables within a vector error correction model using the Johansen technique of co-integration, as well as the CUSUM test. The result confirms the tourism-led growth hypothesis that tourism has had a positive impact on economic growth in the developing countries, particularly in the Republic of Benin. Similarly, the CUSUM test CUSUM and CUSUMSQ statistics are well within the 5% critical bounds, implying that short- and long-term coefficients in the ARDL-Error Correction Model are stable. The result suggests that governments in developing nations will promote and increase international tourism demand to attain sustainable economic growth and development.

The ICT-income inequality relationship and the governance quality-income inequality nexus have been investigated in recent years. However, the moderating effect of ICT on the governance quality-income inequality linkage has been largely ignored. To fill this gap in the literature, this study examines the moderating effect of ICT on the relationship between governance quality and income inequality for a panel of 42 sub-Saharan African economies over the period 1996–2020. To achieve this goal, the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique has been adopted. The results reveal that while ICT contributes to the improvement of income distribution, governance quality contributes to the exacerbation of income inequality. Interestingly, the results unveil that the promotion of E-governance could contribute to improve social welfare and reduce income inequality. Policy implications are given based on the findings of this study. For instance, institutional reforms must be conducted by considering ICT as an important factor to improve income distribution.