Nonlinear impact of World Heritage Sites on China’s tourism expansion

Abstract

Using domestic tourism data (1999–2014) and inbound tourism data (1999–2016), this research applies linear and nonlinear models to investigate the impact of World Heritage Sites (WHS) on inbound and domestic tourism expansion (TE) in terms of tourist arrivals and tourism receipts and then tests whether or not the impact of WHS on TE is instant. The results show a notable influence of WHS on tourist arrivals and tourism receipts and identify several differences between the impacts of WHS on inbound and on domestic TE. Moreover, the relationship between WHS and TE exhibits an inverted U-shaped curve. The optimal number of WHS for TE is four, and there is a significant instantaneous effect of WHS on domestic TE. Differently, the impact of WHS on inbound tourism shows a 1-year lag. Lastly, we perform dynamic regressions as a robustness check and discussion and implications are provided.