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Green development, considering economic and environmental performance, has received increased attention globally. Moreover, the significant economic and environmental impacts of tourism are widely accepted by scholars. However, the nexus of tourism and green development is still unclear. To fill this gap, this study examines the effects of tourism on green development performance measured as green total factor productivity and the influence mechanisms. China's 308 cities' panel data between 2005 and 2019 provide empirical evidence. The results demonstrate an inverted U-shaped relationship between tourism and green total factor productivity, which is substantiated via various rigorous robustness tests. The key drivers of green total factor productivity change in cities include tourism-induced technological innovation, industrial structure optimisation, and environmental enhancement. Besides, the nexus of tourism and GTFP varies significantly across different socio-economic development regions. The positive relationship exists in relatively developed areas, while less-developed western China still keeps inverted U-shaped links between tourism and GTFP. The U-shaped relationship exists in central and northeastern China. The article is the first to systematically explore the impact of tourism on green development while revealing several potential mechanisms, thus significantly contributing to the literature on green development and sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the impact of economic growth pressure on carbon emissions based on panel data from China's 277 cities. Moreover, the article analyzes the underlying influence mechanisms as well as regional heterogeneity. The results demonstrate that economic growth pressure significantly increases carbon emissions. Technological innovation and foreign trade constitute the channels through which economic growth pressure affects carbon emissions, but the mediating mechanism of industrial structure upgrading does not exist. Concretely, economic growth pressure increases carbon emissions by reducing technological innovation and foreign trade. In Western China, economic growth pressure has the highest impact on carbon emissions. In central and western China, economic growth pressure has a significant positive effect on carbon emissions. On the contrary, the effect of economic growth pressure on carbon emissions is significantly negative in Eastern China. In Northeast China, the positive effect of economic growth pressure on carbon emissions is statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comparatively analyzes the sufficiency and necessity of tourism's influence on economic growth in different cities from a systematic configurational perspective. Two important time points in China's tourism development, 2010 and 2019, are also considered in this paper to explore whether the impact of tourism on urban economic growth is temporally heterogeneous. The results demonstrate that tourism is not necessary for urban economic growth. However, the dependence on the tourism economy plays an important role in several urban economic growth patterns. Only one tourism-driven economic growth pattern exists, where tourism drives economic growth led by investment, and this pattern did not change significantly from 2010 to 2019. A tourism-driven low economic growth model also suggests that a high dependence on tourism leads to low economic growth. Two tourism-constrained low economic growth patterns exist: investment–industrial structure tourism-constrained and investment–innovation tourism-constrained. These two patterns indicate that economic growth rates are difficult to increase if the tourism economy is underdeveloped. In addition, tourism-driven or -constrained economic growth patterns have specific spatial clustering characteristics. This paper argues that tourism should actively seek foreign capital utilization and fixed asset investment, and also constantly reduce its independence and blur its industrial boundaries to better integrate or link with other industries to play its economic growth role. Furthermore, city policymakers should be fully aware of their own (tourism) resource endowment and the internal and external environment changes to choose a suitable economic growth model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of carbon emission trading (ETS) has been widely investigated. In contrast to the existing studies, this article explores for the first time the theoretical relationship between the ETS and industrial green total factor productivity (IGTFP) and tests it empirically. Furthermore, the article investigates the mediating mechanisms and possible regional heterogeneity of the influence of the ETS on IGTFP. To this end, a time-varying difference-in-differences technique is employed, drawing on panel data of 276 cities in China from 2005 to 2019. The results show that the ETS significantly and robustly increases IGTFP in pilot regions. Green technological innovation and industrial structure have a significant mediating effect on the nexus of the ETS and IGTFP. However, there exists no mediating mechanism of general technological innovation. In addition, economic development and energy consumption positively moderate the effect of the ETS on IGTFP, and industrial dependence negatively moderates such an effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of tourist attractions has become an important manifestation of local performance and the image of tourist destinations, as well as an important means for local governments to promote economic development. However, the causal relationship between tourist attractions and economic growth remains unclear. The article's main purpose is to explore the causal effect of tourist attractions on economic growth. To do so, a difference-in-differences model is employed based on China's city-level panel data from 2001 to 2019 involving 313 cities and 5947 observations. The results demonstrate that tourist attractions have a significant positive causal effect on China's economic growth. Such causality is significant only in the east and central regions. Highway density, urban disposable income per capita, and the share of the tertiary industry have significant moderating effects. The validity of the causal relationship is confirmed using various rigorous robustness tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the relationship between tourism and gender equality using panel vector autoregression and vector error correction models estimated by the generalized method of moment. This methodology is based on panel data from 36 Asian countries between 2006 and 2019. The other three variables including the economy, employment, and education are also analyzed. The results show that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between tourism and gender equality. In the short run, tourism is not the Granger cause for gender equality; however, tourism significantly contributes to gender equality in all regions in the long run. Furthermore, a heterogeneous causality between tourism and gender equality is found across the regions. Tourism's positive effect on gender equality does not depend entirely on economic empowerment. All the economy, education and employment mostly contribute to realizing gender equality, but this contribution is not decisive. The findings and policy implications are finally discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recognition of the correlation between the tourism industry and a town's spatial morphology, there is a dearth of rigorous empirical specifications to examine it. This study uses geographic information system (GIS) tools and space syntax analysis to explore whether the tourist hotel industry and a town's spatial morphology are consistent or if they have different spatial distributions. From a sample of Phoenix Ancient Town, China, our analysis shows the following results: First, there is a spatial correlation between the tourist hotel industry and urban spatial morphology, which is significantly related to tourist attraction distribution and traffic accessibility. Second, the spatial evolution of the tourist hotel industry and a town's spatial morphology shows different characteristics in different periods. Third, the impact of the tourist hotel industry on a town's spatial morphology is gradually decreasing as new business buildings arise. The analysis is theoretically important as it enriches the methodologies for analyzing the correlation between the tourist hotel industry and a town's spatial morphology. It is important for government planners as it provides useful information for formulating territorial spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the synergies between agriculture and related sectors in rural areas is considered an important development strategy to eliminate rural poverty. This article provides evidence for this view by analyzing the effect of industry convergence between agriculture and related sectors on rural poverty. Based on China's provincial panel data, we use two-way fixed effects model, system generalized method of moments and panel-corrected standard error estimator to quantitatively assess this effect. We find that: (1) the convergence of agriculture and tourism (ATOU), the convergence of agriculture and processing industry (APOS), and the convergence of planting and breeding industry (MIXA) have positive and significant effects on poverty reduction. The convergence of agriculture and the internet industry (AINT) has a positive but not significant effect. (2) Rural local employment plays an important role as a bridge in the impact of convergence on poverty reduction. ATOU and MIXA reduce poverty by increasing self-employment opportunities. APOS reduces poverty by providing more jobs. (3) Except for APOS, the effects of other types of convergence tend to stabilize or improve in the later period. (4) Convergence has the most significant impact on poverty reduction in western China. The findings provide inspiration for developing countries with agricultural foundations to choose appropriate rural development paths for reducing rural poverty., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)