Green finance, cultural and tourism consumption, and sustainable development of tourism economy: A quasi-natural experiment based on the “dual pilot” policies

Abstract

The deep integration of culture and tourism has become an important engine to promote high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 300 cities from 2014 to 2023, we take the pilot policy of “Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Area” and “National Cultural and Tourism Consumption Demonstration City” as quasi-natural experiments, and constructs a difference-in-difference model to comprehensively evaluate the impact of green finance and cultural tourism consumption on the sustainable development of tourism economy. The results show that the coordinated implementation of green finance, cultural tourism consumption and “dual pilot” policies has significantly promoted the sustainable development of tourism economy, and this conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. Further analysis shows that cultural tourism consumption only has a significant positive impact on the economic dimension of sustainable development of tourism economy, while green finance has a negative impact on both economic and ecological dimensions, while the “dual pilot” policies can effectively make up for the limitations of a single policy and has a significant positive impact on both dimensions. Mechanism analysis shows that urban innovation is the key intermediary channel for green finance, cultural tourism consumption and “dual pilot” policies to affect the sustainable development of tourism economy. Heterogeneity analysis shows that in the higher level of digital government construction and the developed eastern regions, the promotion effect of green finance, cultural tourism consumption and “dual pilot” policies on the sustainable development of tourism economy is more significant. The research conclusions provide an empirical basis for accurately promoting the sustainable development of tourism economy, and have important guiding significance for promoting the coordinated symbiosis of economic growth and ecological protection in the tourism field.