Sustainable Tourism Development Through Clean Energy Access: The Moderating Role of Governance in Asia‐Pacific Countries

ABSTRACT Sustainable tourism development in Asia Pacific developing economies increasingly depends on reliable and inclusive access to modern energy, yet the extent to which clean energy access (CEA) translates into tourism growth may depend on the quality of governance. This study investigates how governance, captured by six institutional quality indicators, conditions the relationship between CEA, proxied by clean cooking fuels and technologies (CCT) and electricity (ETY) access, and sustainable tourism in Asia Pacific developing economies. Using panel estimators that are robust to cross‐section dependence and heteroskedasticity, specifically Driscoll and Kraay fixed effects and Lewbel two‐stage least squares, we find that CCT and ETY both have positive and statistically significant effects on tourism growth. Direct governance effects are nuanced: government effectiveness (ge), regulatory quality (rq), and political stability (ps) are positive, while rule of law (rl), voice and accountability (va), and control of corruption (cc) are negative. Interaction results show that higher governance quality amplifies the tourism gains from clean energy access. Marginal effect analysis identifies policy relevant thresholds above which CEA delivers stronger tourism benefits: rl at −1.81 for CCT and −0.94 for ETY, ge at −0.66 and −0.80, va at −0.59 and −0.57, rq at −0.65 and −0.82, and cc at −1.20 and −0.97. Also, ps above 1.52 attenuates the CCT effect. The findings highlight targeted governance strengthening as essential for converting energy access into sustainable tourism growth.