The Impact of Tourism on Economic Growth, Employment and Environment: A Multivariate Regression Analysis

Abstract

Tourism has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decades making it one of the robust sectors in the world. In the Philippines, tourism is recognized as an important contributor to the generation of foreign exchange earnings, investments, revenue, employment and to the growth of the country’s output. Using the multivariate regression analysis, the study revealed that domestic tourism and foreign tourism have correlation with gross domestic product and employment. However, foreign tourism has a greater impact on gross domestic product and employment. Furthermore, the study proved that only the domestic tourism has significant relationship with carbon dioxide emissions. With this, it can be deduced that domestic tourism is the primary contributor in the degradation of the environment. The paper recommends for the government agencies and the private sectors to continue its effort in strengthening the tourism industry by pursuing various programs such as transport infrastructure development, travel facilitation, expanded marketing plan, etc. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) may also look into some environmental policies governing domestic tourism and its stringent implementation. It is further recommended to promote environmental awareness among all tourism sectors, from tourism policy makers down to the grassroots level to ensure that they will have a deeper understanding on the causes and impact of tourism to the environment.