Abstract
The global level of climate change agreement and the extensive development of China’s industrialization process have caused China to face severe pressures regarding energy conservation and emission reduction. Tourism industry plays an important role in promoting steady economic growth and improving ecological environment in China. The agglomeration economic effect it produces can reduce carbon emissions, but the crowding effect may not be conducive to low carbon development. Therefore, how to reduce carbon emissions while promoting the development of tourism industry has become an urgent problem. This paper measures the level of tourism industry agglomeration and carbon emission in 30 regions of China and uses the method of spatial econometrics to analyze the impact of tourism industry agglomeration on carbon emissions. The empirical results prove that tourism industry agglomeration can reduce the carbon emissions of local and neighboring regions in China. However, this does not mean that the larger the scale of tourism industry agglomeration, the more conducive to the reduction of carbon emissions. For developed tourism groups, the impact of agglomeration effect on carbon emissions of local and adjacent areas shows a U-shaped relationship. When the agglomeration level exceeds 1.963, the expansion of agglomeration scale will increase local carbon emissions. For underdeveloped tourism areas, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between agglomeration level and carbon emissions both in local and adjacent areas. When the agglomeration level reaches 1.883, the expansion of agglomeration scale will reduce local carbon emissions. The conclusions provide a basis for Chinese government to guide the low-carbon development of the tourism industry from another perspective.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are mainly from 2005 to 2016 “China Statistical Yearbook,” “China Tourism Statistical Yearbook,” “Tourism Sample Survey Data,” “China Traffic Yearbook,” and the “Statistical Bulletin of National Economic and Social Development.” The datasets supporting the results of this article are included within the article and its additional files.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jin-Wei Wang and Juan Dai. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Can Huang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Conceptualization: Jin-Hua Cheng and Can Huang; methodology: Jin-Wei Wang, Can Huang, and Juan Dai; formal analysis and investigation: Chien-Ming Wang and Can Huang; writing—original draft preparation: Can Huang; writing—review and editing: Can Huang and Jin-Wei Wang; resources: Can Huang and Juan Dai; supervision: Jin-Hua Cheng.
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Huang, C., Wang, JW., Wang, CM. et al. Does tourism industry agglomeration reduce carbon emissions?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 30278–30293 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12706-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12706-2