This article estimates province‐specific tourism‐induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in China by using both standard panel data regression and a panel vector error correction model. We validate the EKC hypothesis in the long run but not in the short run, and show that tourism development reduces per capita CO2 inventory. We add to previous research by allowing for heterogeneous impacts of tourism development on CO2 level. Incorporating these heterogeneity effects changes the estimated turning point for EKC significantly. Additionally, it is found that all provinces are still on the increasing part of the EKC, contrasting the existing results.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.