Estimating the Provincial Economic Impacts of Hotels, Scenic Areas and Transportation Infrastructure in China: The Mediating Role of Tourism Development Quality

Abstract

Using provincial data of China from 2002 to 2016, this paper conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum-likelihood estimations focusing upon the effectiveness of tourism development quality as a mediator to explore the impact of hotels, scenic areas and transportation infrastructure on regional economy in China. The results show that hotels, transportation infrastructure and tourism development quality have direct positive effects on regional economy, while scenic areas and transportation infrastructure have indirect positive effects on regional economy via the intermediary of tourism development quality, especially in the case of multi-group analysis in the western region. Other results also show that specific impact of hotels, scenic areas and transportation infrastructure on regional economy is dependent on the development level of different regions.