Rural tourism spurs economic growth and jobs but harms the Environment due to energy demands. The study accounts for energy use, globalization, and economic growth to assess and mitigate rural tourism's environmental impact. For data covering 2001Q1 to 2019Q4, GMM approaches are utilized to analyze the environmental implications of rural tourist enterprises. The findings suggest that rural tourism-related catering services increased substantial and positive overall environmental quality, except N2O. However, food and beverage services negatively influence greenhouse gas emissions and only PM2.5 in air pollution. Sightseeing hurts greenhouse gas emissions while having a positive impact on air pollution. Furthermore, traveling has a considerable negative influence on CO emissions in air pollutants. Energy use only has a substantial influence on CO2 and CO, but GDP has a negative impact on N2O emissions. Globalization has a negative impact on CO2 and air pollutants other than PM2.5. Catering services associated with rural tourism positively affect overall environmental quality, excluding N2O emissions. Rural tourism's food and beverage services harm greenhouse gas emissions (including CO2) and air pollution (particularly PM2.5). Traveling has a significant negative impact on CO emissions, but sightseeing has a dual impact, both negative on greenhouse gas emissions and positive influence on air pollution. Furthermore, shopping and leisure have little impact on overall environmental quality in China. The crucial efforts' policy ramifications are addressed as well.
Keywords: Catering industry; Economic factors; Energy consumption; Environmental quality; GMM method; Rural tourism; Sightseeing sectors.
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.