Tourism and regional carbon emissions: city-level evidence from China

Abstract

Purpose Although extensive studies have examined the link between tourism and carbon emissions, the impact of tourism on carbon emissions remains controversial. In contrast to prior studies, this study aims to investigate the effects of tourism on carbon emissions at the city level and the underlying moderating mechanism. Design/methodology/approach This study designs an econometric model drawing on panel data for 313 city-level regions in China from 2001 to 2019. This study also performs rigorous robustness tests to support the regression results. In addition, the temporal and spatial heterogeneity is analyzed based on which this study discusses the moderators of the effects of tourism on carbon emissions. Findings The results show that both tourist arrivals and tourism revenue significantly impact carbon emissions. Also, there exists a significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity of these effects. Economic development significantly enhances while green technology and tertiary industry development suppress the positive relationship between tourism and carbon emissions. Moreover, regarding the impact on carbon emissions, an explicit substitution exists between tourism and tertiary industry development. Originality/value For the first time, this study quantitatively estimates the moderators of tourism’s impact on carbon emissions and concludes the moderating effects of economic growth, technological progress and industrial structure, thus furthering the theoretical understanding of the heterogeneity of tourism’s association with carbon emissions. The study also fills a technical gap in previous studies by demonstrating the reliability of the findings through various robustness tests. This is also the first empirical study to systematically examine the relationship between tourism and carbon emissions in China.

Spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and influencing factors of tourism eco-efficiency in the Yellow River Basin based on the geographical and temporal weighted regression model

“…Although stakeholders’ ideas and investment models in tourism activities have changed considerably, they actively participated in market competition, injected new vitality into the tourism market, and improved the willingness of tourists to pay [ 63 ]. However, tourist arrivals increase per capita carbon emissions[ 64 ]. Large-scale tourist activities further increase carbon emission [ 65 ].…”

Impact of Urbanization on Eco-Efficiency of Tourism Destinations

“…For example, when revealing the spatiotemporal differentiation of carbon emissions from regional tourism in China and its decoupling relationship with tourism economic growth, Xiong [71] found that carbon emissions are significantly increasing as income increases. When discussing the relationship between China's tourism industry and carbon emissions, Zhang [72] found that the number of tourists and tourist income is positively correlated with tourism carbon emissions. In 1999, the standard for the classification and evaluation of the quality of tourism destinations was promulgated and implemented [73], in the following three years, the income and carbon emissions of China's tourism destinations have shown positive growth.…”