Air pollution disclosing and tourism: Who are winners?

This paper analyzes how air pollution disclosure reshapes tourism in China. We show, in theory, that air pollution information may change tourism activities, depending on the pollution level disclosed. Using the difference-in-differences approach and panel data across 297 cities, our empirical analyses confirm significant positive effects of air pollution information disclosure. The impact, however, is moderated by the level of air pollution. Only cities with low air pollution are happy with disclosing the information while in cities with high air pollution, disclosing air pollution may exert negative effects. Overall, the results indicate that air pollution reduces information transparency's positive impact on tourism. This urges tourism managers to use the instrument of environmental information to reduce pollution and boost local tourism.