Loss of tourism revenue induced by coastal environmental pollution: a length-of-stay perspective

Abstract

Length of stay has been widely neglected in exploring the relationship between environmental pollution and tourism revenue. Using the survey data of beach tourism along the East China Sea, this paper develops a theoretical model to clarify the impact of length of stay based on the travel cost model with on-site time endogenous. The result shows that the impact of marine litter on tourism revenue is statistically significant with the channel setting of length of stay. The finding remains robust even when the different regression techniques and endogeneity of length-of-stay cases are involved. Moreover, the loss of tourism revenue attributable to tourists’ length of stay as affected by waste is considerable. The simulation shows that the tourism revenue can be increased by up to 32.23% and 28.87%, respectively, when plastic and cans on the beach are cleaned up.

Keywords:

• Length of stay
• tourism revenue
• marine litter
• travel cost model
• 2SLS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was financially supported by National Social Science Foundation of China (14CJY058, 16ZDA050, 19AJY007). The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes on contributors

Mengmeng Qiang

Mengmeng Qiang, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Economics, Zhejiang University, China.

Manhong Shen

Manhong Shen, Ph.D., Professor, School of Business, Ningbo University, China.

Huiming Xie

Huiming Xie, Ph.D., Professor, School of Business, Ningbo University, China.