The global level of climate change agreement and the extensive development of China's industrialization process have caused China to face severe pressures regarding energy conservation and emission reduction. Tourism industry plays an important role in promoting steady economic growth and improving ecological environment in China. The agglomeration economic effect it produces can reduce carbon emissions, but the crowding effect may not be conducive to low carbon development. Therefore, how to reduce carbon emissions while promoting the development of tourism industry has become an urgent problem. This paper measures the level of tourism industry agglomeration and carbon emission in 30 regions of China and uses the method of spatial econometrics to analyze the impact of tourism industry agglomeration on carbon emissions. The empirical results prove that tourism industry agglomeration can reduce the carbon emissions of local and neighboring regions in China. However, this does not mean that the larger the scale of tourism industry agglomeration, the more conducive to the reduction of carbon emissions. For developed tourism groups, the impact of agglomeration effect on carbon emissions of local and adjacent areas shows a U-shaped relationship. When the agglomeration level exceeds 1.963, the expansion of agglomeration scale will increase local carbon emissions. For underdeveloped tourism areas, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between agglomeration level and carbon emissions both in local and adjacent areas. When the agglomeration level reaches 1.883, the expansion of agglomeration scale will reduce local carbon emissions. The conclusions provide a basis for Chinese government to guide the low-carbon development of the tourism industry from another perspective.
Keywords: Carbon emissions; China provinces; Industrial agglomeration; Spatial spillover effect; Tourism industry.