Promoting eco-tourism for the green economic recovery in ASEAN

The green economic recovery in post-COVID-19 is a controversial issue among scholars. The primary purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of the tourism sustainable development index (as a proxy of ecotourism) on the inclusive green economic growth of ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states throughout 2000–2021 through employing the system-GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) dynamic panel data approach. The findings confirmed that the tourism sustainable development index has a positive and linear relationship with the green economic growth index, confirming the existence of the TLEG (The Tourism-led Economic Growth) hypothesis. The coefficient of the official exchange rate is positive and statistically significant, whereas the good governance index positively affects green economic growth in ASEAN economies. The primary practical policies are developing the green financing market, coherent ecotourism action plans, supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the ecotourism industry, and establishing a regional ecotourism value chain.