Can Tourism Go Green? Unpacking the Role of FinTech and Resource Use in Emerging Asia's Sustainability Transition

ABSTRACT This study examines how Financial Technology (FinTech), Natural Resource Rent (NTR), Tourism (TOR), and Environmental Sustainability (ENS) interact in emerging economies, focusing on the CAREC region. The study evaluates how these drivers shape environmental outcomes while influencing broader economic development. Using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR), the analysis captures heterogeneous effects across different levels of environmental sustainability, offering a more complete view of how these relationships vary across the distribution. The findings show a strong positive relationship between GDP, NTR, and CO 2 emissions, indicating that economic expansion tied to resource extraction intensifies environmental degradation. In contrast, FinTech demonstrates a negative association with CO 2 emissions. This suggests that digital financial systems can support greener development by improving efficiency, lowering transaction costs, and reducing dependence on physical infrastructure. Tourism, however, is shown to heighten environmental pressures, particularly in countries with high visitor inflows where resource use, waste generation, and mobility demands strain local ecosystems. The study highlights that scaling up FinTech solutions can help reduce the environmental burden of tourism and promote cleaner development pathways. For CAREC countries, the results underscore the need to integrate digital finance, green technologies, and sustainable tourism strategies to align economic activity with environmental goals. Policymakers are encouraged to redesign sectoral policies so that tourism and resource use contribute to long‐term sustainability rather than environmental decline.