Changing the industrial structure of tourism to achieve a low-carbon economy in China: An industrial linkage perspective

Abstract

By combining linkage analysis and the multi-objective programming model, this study establishes a fresh analytical framework that embeds tourism-related sectors to identify the direction of change in the structure of the tourism industry for a low-carbon economy. In a demonstration of the analytical framework, it is applied to an empirical study of China. The main results reveal that most tourism-related sectors are not key emission sectors, and that significant heterogeneity exists in the economic and emission linkage characteristics of these tourism-related sectors. In the optimal scenario, increasing the output of tourism by using the optimal production structure reduces the emission intensity of tourism and offsets macroeconomic losses caused by emission constraints. In the optimisation of the industrial structure aimed at a low-carbon economy, the direction of change in output varies across tourism-related sectors. Therefore, it is essential to avoid promoting emission reductions indiscriminately across the tourism industry. Finally, the practicality and implications of the proposed analytical framework are illustrated.