Asymmetric effects of cultural and natural World Heritage Sites on tourism receipts

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study uses dynamic panel data to investigate the effects of Cultural World Heritage Site (CWHS) and Natural World Heritage Site (NWHS) on China’s domestic tourism receipts (DTR) and inbound tourism receipts (ITR). The results show evidence of a positive asymmetrical relationship between World Heritage Site (NWHS and CWHS) and both kinds of tourism receipts. The impact of NWHS on DTR follows scale effects, while that of NWHS on ITR obeys the law of decreasing marginal utility. The link between CWHS and inbound and domestic tourism receipts follows an inverse U-shaped pattern. The optimal numbers of NWHS and CWHS obtained from those non-linear models vary, while the effect of NWHS and CWHS on DTR can be strengthened by the presence of each other, but only the impact of CWHS on ITR is influenced by NWHS. Furthermore, we describe the implications of the research results.