Does green finance and renewable energy promote tourism for sustainable development: Empirical evidence from China

Abstract

There are few empirical studies that quantify the relationship between green financing, renewable energy, and tourism. This study assesses the effect of green financing and renewable energy on China's tourism business using panel data from the country's 24 provinces from 2005 to 2020. Also used as explanatory factors are technological advancement, health expenditures, and carbon emissions. The estimations methods Augmented Mean Group (AMG) technique and System GMM technique has been used to analyze the data. The findings show that the renewable energy, green finance, and technical innovation are positively associated with tourism industry. Additionally, health costs and carbon emissions are significantly decline the tourism activities. Beside, the moderate role of renewable energy and green finance lead to a significant rise in the tourism activities. Furthermore, the panel causality also shows the robust causal association among the selected variables. The empirical results also provide some imperative policy implications that can help China's to meet the required standard for sustainable tourism.