Balancing efficiency and fairness: The role of tourism development in economic growth and urban-rural income gap

Social fairness and economic recovery stimulation constitute crucial challenges in countries all around the world, and tourism development has enormous potential for balancing efficiency and fairness. Based on the panel data at city level in Yangtze River Delta Region, China, this study uncovered the role that tourism development plays in economic growth and urban-rural income gap by adopting the dynamic SYS-GMM model. In addition, the moderating effect model was employed to concentrate on the moderating role of urbanization on the relationship between tourism development and economic growth as well as urban-rural income gap. The main conclusions are as follows. First, tourism development does not only promote economic growth, but it also narrows the urban-rural income gap. Second, when it comes to the dynamic effect generated by tourism development, the economic growth-promotion effect is stronger than the urban-rural income gap-inhibiting effect. Third, urbanization can enhance the impact of tourism development on economic growth and the reduction of urban-rural income gap.