Does High-Speed Rail Boost Tourism Growth? New Evidence from China

Tourism Management, 2019, 72, 220-231

29 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2018 Last revised: 12 Jul 2019

See all articles by Yanyan Gao

Yanyan Gao

Southeast University - School of Economics and Management

Wei Su

Nanjing Institute of Tourism and Hospitality

Kaini Wang

Southeast University

Date Written: November 23, 2018

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on tourism growth using China’s city panel data from 2004 to 2015. The empirical results from the difference-in-differences method show that HSR connection does not promote tourism revenue but does boost tourist arrivals, leading to a negative effect of HSR connection on tourism revenue per arrival; these results are further confirmed by the instrumental variable method to address the issue of endogenous HSR route placement, and by various robustness checks. Further investigation shows that the effect of HSR connection on tourist arrivals is heterogeneous. By connecting to HSR, less-developed central and western regions have attracted more arrivals than the developed eastern region, and cities with unique tourism resources, although they attract fewer arrival increase, gain more revenue than cities without those resources.

Keywords: High-Speed Rail; Tourism Revenue; Tourist Arrivals; China; Difference-In-Differences

JEL Classification: O81; L92; R41; Z32

Suggested Citation

Gao, Yanyan and Su, Wei and Wang, Kaini, Does High-Speed Rail Boost Tourism Growth? New Evidence from China (November 23, 2018). Tourism Management, 2019, 72, 220-231, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3289421 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3289421

Yanyan Gao (Contact Author)

Southeast University - School of Economics and Management ( email )

Jingguan Building, Dongnandaxue Road 2, Jiangning
Nanjing, Jiangsu 211189
China

Wei Su

Nanjing Institute of Tourism and Hospitality ( email )

Nanjing, Jiangsu
China

Kaini Wang

Southeast University ( email )

Sipailou 2#
Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210096
China

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