Tourist Attraction Appraisal and Local Environment Improvement: Some Evidence from China
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper analyzes the relationship between tourist attraction appraisal and local environment improvement. Using a panel data set of 150 top tourist cities in China from 2004 to 2019, the paper adopts a two-way fixed effects model to test the impact of 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal on local environment improvement. The main conclusions are given as follows: First, 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal can motivate local governments to improve the local environment. Second, the environmental improvement effect of 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal is influenced by a city’s tourism resource dependence. In cities with higher tourism resource dependence, 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal is more conducive to improving the local environment. Third, 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal has caused stronger environmental improvement effects for natural tourist attractions than for cultural tourist attractions. These results highlight that urban planners should pay attention to the mechanism of tourist attraction appraisal to improve the urban environment, while promoting economic development.
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Acknowledgments
This work was sponsored by the Shanghai Pujiang Program (No. 21PJC054) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. CXJJ-2022-438).
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Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149 • Issue 3 • September 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 26, 2022
Accepted: Apr 17, 2023
Published online: May 31, 2023
Published in print: Sep 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2023
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