Low-carbon strategy and tourism development.

The ability of a low-carbon strategy to promote tourism development is critical to achieving economic development and environmental protection. Taking China's low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this study evaluates the low-carbon strategy's effect on tourism development by adopting the difference-in-difference method with 275 cities'panel data from 2002 to 2019. The results verify that tourism has significantly developed, driven by the LCCP policy, and this finding is robust even after multiple tests. Mechanism and heterogeneity analyses show that LCCP policy drives tourism development by improving air quality, promoting industrial structure upgrading, and enhancing green technology innovation. Additionally, the pilot construction has a positive spatial spillover impact on the tourism industry in surrounding cities, reflecting the demonstration effect of the pilot city on the neighbouring cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]