Do Digital Governance and Digital Innovation Impact the Carbon Intensity of Tourism in Central Africa? Empirical Evidence from CEMAC Countries

Abstract

This study examines the effects of digital innovation and digital governance on tourism carbon intensity (TCI) across the six Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) countries over 2000–2024. Tourism carbon intensity is constructed from transport-sector carbon dioxide emissions relative to international tourist arrivals. Digital innovation is represented by Internet access, while digital governance is measured using seven V-Dem indicators. The empirical analysis applies a Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework to distinguish long-run relationships from short-run dynamics. The estimates indicate that digital innovation and the different dimensions of digital governance have heterogeneous long-run relationships with tourism carbon intensity. Expanded Internet access is associated with a reduction in long-run TCI, whereas cybersecurity capacity is associated with an increase. The remaining digital-governance indicators display contrasting relationships, reinforcing the importance of considering each governance dimension separately. In the short run, GDP per capita is the only variable with a statistically significant effect. The moderation analysis further indicates that economic development strengthens the carbon-mitigating relationship between digital innovation and TCI, while it does not significantly moderate the relationships involving digital governance. Overall, the findings suggest that digital transformation does not have a uniform environmental effect in CEMAC. Coordinated digital, tourism, and environmental policies are therefore important for improving digital access while aligning governance and infrastructure development with lower-carbon tourism objectives.