Tourism and low-carbon performance: an fsQCA approach

ABSTRACT

This study applied a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the influence of tourism on changes in low-carbon performance. We additionally introduced economy, renewable energy use, and research and development investment as the antecedent conditions. The results show that the impact of tourism on low-carbon performance is diversified and non-linear. Tourism is not the necessary condition of high or weak low-carbon performance. We found three different low-carbon development models, namely the economy-led development in emerging economies, tourism-led development in developing countries, and innovation-led development in developed countries. We also found the causal asymmetry in the driving mechanism of low-carbon performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism
• economic growth
• renewable energy
• R&D investment
• carbon intensity
• low-carbon performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 71764027].