Development Under Belt and Road Initiative: Gains for Tourism Industry in Participant Countries

ABSTRACT BRI is a mega-development project covering 140 countries in three continents; Asia, Africa, and Europe. The political and economic dimensions of BRI have been studied in several studies in the literature, but the effect on tourism has been less explored. Tourism development has been linked with sustainable development goals due to its substantial economic potential. A panel dataset of 151 countries from 2000–2019 is used to analyze the effect of participation in BRI on the tourism industry. The PSM-DID model is used after testing the validity through the event-study approach. The robustness of the estimates was tested through counterfactual evidence and a placebo test. The findings show that participation in BRI has increased the number of inbound tourists by 18.4% and tourism revenues by 7%. BRI proved relatively more beneficial for the tourism industry of South Asian, Western Asian, and Middle Eastern countries. The regional difference can be attributed to tourist attraction spots, entry regulations for foreigners, the service quality of the tourism industry, and support facilities offered to tourists. The cooperation among the countries should be increased to facilitate tourists. Tourism companies can use these findings to improve their selection of target markets and future development plans.