Escape from air pollution: How does air quality in the place of residence shape tourism consumption?

• Luojia Wang ^[1] ; Kerui Du ^[1] ; Bin Fang ^[1] ; Rob Law ^[2]
  1. [1] Xiamen University

     Xiamen University

     China

     
  2. [2] University of Macau

     University of Macau

     RAE de Macao (China)

     
• Localización: Tourism economics: the business and finance of tourism and recreation, ISSN 1354-8166, Vol. 29, Nº. 4, 2023, págs. 1074-1099
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Air quality has been demonstrated to be an important determinant influencing tourist decision making. In this paper, we investigate the effect of air quality in the place of origin on a resident’s tourism consumption and the moderating effect of household income on this relationship. We develop a conceptual framework to rationalize the effect and empirically examine it at the household level using China Labor-force Dynamics Survey data from 2016. The results show that poor ambient air quality increases tourism consumption. Furthermore, this relationship becomes stronger for the higher-income group: One standard deviation increase in the Air Quality Index would increase tourism expenditure as much as a 22.56% increase in family income. The methods of instrumental variable and functional-coefficient regression were employed for robustness analysis. These findings contribute to the literature by providing a new perspective for tourism demand studies and direct implications for tourism management and policy making.