Tourism and intergenerational social mobility

This study examines the influence of regional tourism growth on intergenerational social mobility using a comprehensive cross-sectional data set that includes six survey waves from the Chinese General Social Survey. Our findings show that tourism significantly encourages upward intergenerational social mobility. These baseline results remain consistent even when we apply instrumental variables, employ a hierarchical linear model, and conduct other robustness tests. Based on theories related to intergenerational mobility, promoting industrial structure upgrading and addressing regional inequality to ease the financial burden of family education are ways in which tourism promotes upward intergenerational social mobility. Moreover, our analysis of different groups shows that tourism growth mainly improves intergenerational social mobility for male offspring from low-education or rural backgrounds. Consequently, while tourism may reduce urban-rural disparities to a degree, it could intensify gender inequality in rural areas. These findings reveal the theoretical mechanism through which tourism influences intergenerational mobility, providing a more comprehensive examination of tourism’s role in promoting regional sustainability.