Achieving balanced regional development in China: is domestic or international tourism more efficacious?

Many developing countries are now suffering from rather large regional development gaps. Can tourism promote balanced regional development (BRD) and so narrow such gaps? This study empirically examines and compares the impact of both international and domestic tourism on China's regional development using the Gini coefficient method and the Granger causality test. The results indicate that the spatial distribution of the total tourism industry is more unbalanced than that of the regional economy. However, the imbalance in the spatial distribution is decreasing more rapidly than the imbalance in the regional economy. The Gini coefficient decomposition analysis shows that declining tourism spatial distribution imbalances are mainly and increasingly caused by domestic tourism. Granger causality tests show that tourism development will promote BRD through domestic tourism rather than international tourism. Finally, the authors draw out the policy implications for China's tourism industry and BRD.