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Objectively evaluating the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on China ’s inbound tourism and systematically exploring its mechanisms are of guiding significance for promoting the development of China ’s inbound tourism. Using the panel data of 104 countries from 2010 to 2019, this study took the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative as a quasi-natural experiment to construct a difference-in-differences model. Combining perspectives of economic connections and cultural communication, this study also used the methods of mediating effect and text mining and analysis to testify the mechanisms and applied the moderating effect to explore the possible interactions within the mechanisms. The results showed that: ① The Belt and Road Initiative significantly increased the number of tourists to China from the countries along the Belt and Road by about 15.03% to 30.10% annually, thus promoting the development of China’s inbound tourism. ② International trade played a mediating role in this relationship. Compared with the import trade (39.17%), the export trade (47.05%) had a greater impact on this relationship. ③ Cultural identity played a mediating role in this relationship. The impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on cultural identity presented a mode of ‘three cores, six tones, and numerous elements,’ with the hot spots focusing on Chinese learning, education, art, traditional Chinese medicine, the motion picture industry, and the publishing industry. ④ The mechanisms of ‘traveling for business’ and ‘traveling for culture’ coexisted and interacted positively. Export trade had a greater impact on the interaction between the two than import trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]