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E-commerce drives tourism industry growth. However, little is known about the heterogeneous impacts of e-commerce on domestic and international tourism. Using panel data from 257 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019 and applying a double machine learning method, this study utilises the National E-commerce Pilot City Policy (NEPCP) as a quasi-experiment to evaluate the effect of e-commerce on tourism. The results indicate that the NEPCP significantly promotes domestic and overall tourism, while its impact on foreign tourism is minimal. Tourism entrepreneurial activity, network attention, and green-built environment mediate these effects. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the NEPCP substantially impacts cities with high development tier rankings, extensive internet infrastructure, and high levels of public service. Additionally, the NEPCP creates a significant siphon effect on tourism in neighbouring areas. This study provides empirical evidence on the impact of e-commerce on tourism and offers recommendations for promoting sustainable tourism.
Fu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.