Assessing the Impacts of the High-Speed Train on Tourism Demand in China

Abstract

The high-speed railway has been an appropriate embodiment both of China's phenomenal rise and of its inherent economic and social dilemmas, which are assuming growing regional and international relevance. This study develops an econometric model to investigate the impacts of the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway on domestic tourism receipts in three Chinese provinces. The auto regressive and moving average (ARMA) model is integrated into a time series approximation and analysis. The results indicate that, while the provinces of Guangdong and Hunan have benefited from the high-speed railway, it has limited influence on Hubei province. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the study are also elaborated.