Search Results (2)

Prior studies have suggested the existence of a reverse causality relationship between air quality and tourism development: while air quality influences tourism, dynamic segments of the tourism industry (e.g., cruising, airline, foodservice) have impacts on air quality. This reverse causality hinders a precise estimate on the effect of air pollution on tourism development within a conventional econometric framework, since the variable of air pollution is endogenous. This study estimates the impact of air pollution on the inbound tourism industry in China, by controlling for endogeneity based on a regression discontinuity design (RDD). The estimate is derived from a quasi-experiment generated by China’s Huai River Policy, which subsidizes coal for winter heating in northern Chinese cities. By analyzing data from 274 Chinese cities during the period 2009–2012, it is found that air pollution significantly reduces the international inbound tourism: an increase of PM ${}_{10}$ (particulate matter smaller than 10 $\mathsf{\mu }$ m) by 0.1 mg/m ${}^3$ will cause a decline in the tourism receipts-to-local gross domestic product (GDP) ratio by 0.45 percentage points. This study also highlights the importance of controlling for endogeneity, since the detrimental impact of air pollution would otherwise be considerably underestimated. This study further demonstrates that, although air pollution is positively correlated with the average expenditure of each tourist, it substantially depresses the number of inbound tourists. The results imply that air quality could potentially influence inbound tourists’ city destination choices. However, it is interesting to note that travelers in air polluted cities in China tend to spend more money. Full article

Although rural tourism enterprises have played crucial roles in the prosperity of tourist destinations, environmental contamination due to corporate behaviour is also an important issue to consider. In this study, we introduce corporate community involvement theory to explore the antecedents and contingency effects of corporate green behaviour for tourist destination sustainability from the perspective of tourism corporate social responsibility. Using first-hand survey data collected in Guangdong and Anhui provinces, and matching second-hand data from the statistical yearbook and tourist destination government work reports, we found that corporate community involvement has a positive impact on the green behaviour of rural tourism enterprises. This association is moderated by place identity and the gross tourism receipts of destinations. By doing so, this research extends the scope of tourism environmental governance from ‘the bottom’ (for tourists) to ‘the top’ (for tourism enterprises). Meanwhile, this research provides feasible advice to policymakers by highlighting the coordination value of enterprises’ initiative strategies (e.g., corporate community involvement) and destination contingency. Full article