Resumen de Cultural diffusion and international inbound tourism: Evidence from China

Mengmeng Qiang, Manhong Shen, Huiming Xie

• Cultural diffusion is an important noneconomic determinant of tourism demand but has receivedless focus in the literature. This study seeks to address this gap by focusing on the impact of theConfucius Institute, an important institution of Chinese cultural diffusion, on inbound tourism toChina. It is shown that the Confucius Institute positively contributes to the Chinese inboundtourism flows, even when the endogeneity of Confucius Institutes is considered. Moreover, theimpact of the Confucius Institute on China’s inbound tourism has a lagged effect and regionalheterogeneity. In addition, cultural distance is a mediating variable of the Confucius Institute ontourism demand. As cultural distance increases, the impact of the Confucius Institute on China’sinternational tourism flow first rises and then decreases.