Does Tourism Growth Influence Destination Residents’ Welfare in China? The Mediating Effect of Cuisine Diversity

This paper examines whether tourism can improve the diversity of cuisine and destination residents’ welfare. We constructed a theoretical model of tourism development-driven diversified welfare and found that, in open cities which receive tourists, non-tradable goods can be diversified by tourism development, which can enhance residents’ welfare. We further used cuisine diversity as a proxy of the diversity of non-tradable goods and established a panel dataset. Regression results indicate that tourism intensity positively influences cuisine diversity and welfare. The impact of tourism intensity on welfare can be realized through the mediating effect of cuisine diversity. Our findings remain robust after robustness checks, and subsample analysis shows that the positive impact of tourism on welfare is more remarkable in urban destinations with limited resources for tourism development and undeveloped cities.