Tourism development has often been considered as a growth pillar over recent decades; however, studies on whether and how it can contribute to pollution reduction are scant. This study fills the research gaps by exploring the role of tourism development in pollution emissions by investigating two influencing mechanisms—the industry substitution effect and energy substitution effect—in the context of Asian Tigers. Several econometric techniques are used to show that a 1% increase in tourism development can lead to a 0.3862% decrease in carbon emissions. The results of multiple mediating effect analyses indicate that the tourism sector can curb carbon emissions by both replacing high-emissions industries and promoting the use of renewable energy; the effect of the former path is 4% greater than that of the latter. This study should serve as a reference by which policymakers can develop sustainable tourism and reduce pollution emissions.

在过去的几十年中，旅游业的发展常常被视为增长的支柱。但是，关于它是否以及如何有助于减少污染的研究很少。本研究通过在亚洲四小龙的背景下研究两种影响机制（产业替代效应和能源替代效应）来探索旅游业发展在污染排放中的作用，从而填补了研究空白。几种计量经济学技术被用来表明，旅游业发展增加1％可以导致碳排放减少0.3862％。多种中介效应分析的结果表明，旅游业可以通过取代高排放行业和促进可再生能源的使用来抑制碳排放。前者的影响比后者大4％。