Tourism, industrialization, and sustainable economic growth

Abstract

The coordination between tourism and other industries contributes to the tourism sustainability as well as the sustainable economic growth. This study comprehensively examines the effect of the relationship between tourism development and industrialization on sustainable economic growth based on provincial data of China. By using the coupling coordination degree model and instrumental variable regression method, we found the following: (1) Tourism-industrialization coordination exerts positive and significant effects on sustainable economic growth. Additional robustness checks show that the results are reliable. (2) Economic development, tourism development, and manufacturing innovation moderate the effect of tourism-industrialization coordination on sustainable economic growth. (3) The sustainable economic growth effect of tourism is nonlinear and affected by tourism-industrialization coordination, and industrialization is important for tourism-led sustainable growth. The findings broaden the understanding of the relationship between tourism and economic sustainability from the perspective of industrial coordination. It may contribute to building a sustainable economic development path in developing countries.