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

Luojia Wang, Kerui Du, Bin Fang and Rob Law

Tourism Economics, 2023, vol. 29, issue 4, 1074-1099

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: push effect; air quality; residential place; moderating effect; tourism consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:29:y:2023:i:4:p:1074-1099

DOI: 10.1177/13548166221091749

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