Can tourism enhance Chinese subjective well-being?

Abstract

Using survey data from the Chinese General Social Survey, this paper empirically examines the overall impact of tourism – especially tourism intensity – on Chinese individuals' subjective well-being. Results show that tourism can significantly improve Chinese people's subjective well-being. After eliminating endogeneity bias by constructing provincial instrumental variables, findings indicate that tourism more strongly affects this population's subjective well-being. The Ordered Probit regression model further confirms the robustness of our findings. Cluster sampling estimates reveal that tourism has a more significant impact on the subjective well-being of the following Chinese tourist groups: people earning a moderate income, rural residents, residents of central and western regions, non–Communist Party of China members, religious believers, the young, the elderly, and people with a low level of education.