Exploring the dual impact: Dissecting the impact of tourism agglomeration on low-carbon agriculture.

Despite extensive research on the relationship between tourism and agriculture, the specific impact of tourism on agriculture's low-carbon transition has not been thoroughly investigated. This study analyzes the effects of tourism agglomeration on agricultural carbon intensity across 30 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2020. It is framed within the context of rural digitalization, with a particular emphasis on the integration of agro-tourism and the total factor productivity of agriculture. Utilizing spatial econometric models, we find that tourism agglomeration hinders the low-carbon transition in agriculture by influencing carbon intensity both directly and indirectly. At the national level, the impact of tourism agglomeration follows an inverted-U curve with respect to agro-tourism integration and carbon intensity. At the regional level, the effects vary, with weaker indirect influences in major grain-producing areas. Furthermore, rural digitalization appears to lessen the adverse impacts of tourism on carbon intensity. This study also identifies significant spatial spillover effects from tourism agglomeration. The findings suggest that provinces with high tourist influx should enhance investments in climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies to counteract these negative impacts. Moreover, integrated governance of tourism and agriculture is essential for achieving carbon neutrality in both sectors.

Do tourism clusters contribute to low-carbon destinations? The spillover effect of tourism agglomerations on urban residential CO2 emissions.

A burgeoning literature has investigated the relationship between tourism and regional CO2 emissions. However, the results are equivocal. Some scholars find that tourism induces more emissions, while others find that tourism benefits emission mitigation. Previous research suffers three deficiencies: (1) the CO2 emissions induced by tourism beyond the tourism sectors are neglected; (2) the role of tourism agglomerations in sustainable destination development is underrated; (3) the tripartite mechanism of tourism agglomerations, household income, and urban direct residential CO2 emissions (DRCEs) remains to be determined. Based on the theories of complex adaptive system and an empirical study of 30 provinces in China, we examine the relationship between the tripartite roles via multiple spatial econometric models. The results disclose that tourism agglomerations have dual effects on urban DRCEs and an inverted U-shaped effect on household income. The growth of tourism agglomerations has generally promoted urban DRCEs in many provinces of mainland China during the last fourteen years because its indirect effect (positive) outweighs the direct effect (negative). However, tourism agglomerations are feasible for low-carbon destinations once the emission-income decoupling happens. This study contributes to low-carbon destination management by presenting a more holistic image of the social-economic-environmental impacts of tourism agglomerations.