The Impact of Smog on Inbound Tourism in China from the Perspective of Heterogeneity of Tourists'Risk Perception

Based on China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2017, the paper employs the emission intensity of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and smoke dust as the measurement index of smog pollution constructs regression model of impact of smog on inbound tourism scale from the perspective of risk perception theory, and makes empirical analysis using Two-way Fixed Effect Model. The results show that smog has significantly negative impact on the scale of inbound tourism in China. Judging from the categories of tourists, the negative impact of smog on the scale of foreign tourists is significant, while the negative impact on the scale of tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan is not obvious, indicating that the foreign tourist market is more sensitive to smog pollution, and there is heterogeneity in tourists' perception for smog affecting inbound tourism. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of risk perception is examined from different regions with different pollution levels. The negative impact of smog in the more polluted northern regions on inbound tourism is significantly greater than that in the southern regions. On this basis, the negative impact of smog in the southern and northern regions on the scale of foreign tourists is significantly greater than that of tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. This further proves that foreign tourists have stronger perception of smog risk than tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Therefore, effective ways such as strengthening the control of smog pollution, especially in heavily polluted areas, and taking measures to create the image of "China Blue", strengthening international regional cooperation, and optimizing the comprehensive tourism system according to the heterogeneity of tourists' preferences can be taken to reduce tourists ' perception of smog risk and enhance the attractiveness of China's inbound tourism.