Exploring the Role of Nature-based Leisure in Promoting Sustainable Tourism

Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Tourism Management and Hospitality

Year: 2026

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Exploring the Role of Nature-based Leisure in Promoting Sustainable Tourism

Georgios Vasileiadis

ABSTRACT:

This study examines the relationship between environmental sustainability and tourism development, with a particular focus on the role of nature-based leisure across 173 countries between 2000 and 2018. By integrating data from the World Bank, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework, and World Tourism Organization tourism statistics, the analysis constructs a comprehensive panel dataset capturing both environmental and tourism dynamics. A composite Nature Sustainability Index (NSI) is developed to assess countries’ sustainability profiles, incorporating renewable energy use, rural population share, CO2 damage, and forest depletion. Using a mixed-method approach that combines exploratory data analysis, regression modeling, principal component analysis, clustering and machine learning techniques, the study identifies key patterns and nonlinear relationships. The findings reveal a persistent negative global correlation between sustainability and tourism intensity, largely driven by structural differences between high-income, high-tourism economies and lower-income, nature-rich countries with limited infrastructure. However, this relationship varies significantly across income groups, becoming positive in upper-middle-income countries where sufficient development enables the effective utilization of natural assets for tourism. Machine learning models outperform traditional linear regression, highlighting the importance of nonlinear dynamics and identifying GDP per capita, natural resource rents, and environmental degradation as major predictors of tourism intensity. The results underscore the existence of a development threshold beyond which sustainability can become a competitive advantage in tourism. The study contributes to the literature by providing a large-scale empirical assessment of the sustainability–tourism nexus and offers policy-relevant insights for leveraging nature-based leisure in sustainable development strategies.

Keywords: Clustering; Machine Learning; Nature-Based Leisure; Sustainability; Tourism Intensity