This study examines momentum dynamics across U.S. tourism equity subsectors from 2011–2023. While momentum is well documented in broad equity markets, its behavior within tourism remains underexplored despite the sector’s pronounced demand volatility, heterogeneous information environments, and crisis sensitivity—characteristics that theoretically amplify behavioral asset-pricing mechanisms. Using the Jegadeesh–Titman (1993) framework, we document pronounced heterogeneity in return predictability across airlines, dining, hotels, and leisure services, including both continuation and reversals. Using parametric and non-parametric methods, we document pronounced heterogeneity: airlines and dining exhibit long-horizon reversals consistent with overconfidence-driven correction; leisure services display intermediate-horizon continuation aligned with gradual information diffusion; hotels show muted predictability. Findings contribute to tourism economics by demonstrating how industry structure conditions behavioral asset pricing, with implications for subsector-focused portfolio allocation and investor relations.

Tourism consumption has become a major economic factor for modern societies. However, the environmental impact of tourism has become a significant concern, leading to a greater focus on sustainable tourism policies. Although governments and institutions have introduced frameworks to promote ecological transition in the tourism sector, several aspects of such policies remain unclear. This study provides an innovative attempt to examine the complex relationship between tourism demand and sustainable tourism policies. To do so, we adopt a gravity modeling framework to examine the incoming international tourism flows in Italian provinces. We find a positive association between tourism demand and sustainability labels suggesting that eco-labels are appreciated by tourists and play a role in the destination choice. It highlights the need for continued research to identify sustainable tourism policies that can balance the economic benefits of tourism with environmental considerations.

This study investigates how women’s inclusion in leadership positions affects financial risk in China’s hotel industry, integrating gender role theory with agency theory. Test results of dynamic panel regressions with the two-step SYS-GMM estimation reveal three key insights, providing empirical evidence that strategic gender diversity in leadership can serve as a financial risk management tool. First, both women’s inclusion in executive (EWI) and board (BWI) positions significantly reduce firm-specific risk but have no impact on market-wide risk. Second, the study identifies a U-shaped relationship, with firm-specific risk minimized at optimal inclusion levels of 29.21% (EWI) and 24.20% (BWI). Third, the risk-mitigating effect of EWI and BWI is asymmetric, specifically stronger during economic expansions than recessions, reflecting the hospitality sector’s cyclical nature. The study contributes theoretical value by bridging theories with financial risk analysis in hospitality contexts and offers practical guidance for hotel firms in optimizing leadership structures.

This paper employs the difference-in-differences analysis method to probe into the impact of low-carbon city construction on tourism specialization. Results indicate that it significantly enhances tourism specialization via industrial restructuring and ecological governance. Low-carbon cities only positively impact tourism specialization in central cities, while the impact is not significant in eastern and western cities. Furthermore, low-carbon city construction only significantly positively impacts tourism specialization at low administrative levels, non-ETS pilot cities, and non-resource-based cities. Besides, economic development and human capital significantly and negatively moderate the positive influence on tourism specialization, while environmental quality positively moderates this positive effect. These findings highlight tourism’s response to low-carbon transition, offering insights for sustainable tourism and regional development.

This study examines the effect of physical climate shocks on firm investment behaviour across 43 emerging economies. Drawing on 8775 firm-year observations from the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector, we find that firms operating in high climate-risk environments exhibit systematically lower investment efficiency. The results indicate that heightened climate exposure prompts a shift toward conservative financial strategies—namely, reduced capital expenditure, greater earnings retention, and increased reliance on short-term financing. These findings underscore the economic costs of climate volatility at the firm level and highlight a structural trade-off between financial resilience and long-term growth in emerging markets.

This study highlights the importance of ESG disclosures in reducing the adverse effects of political and climate change uncertainties on tourism firms’ total and systematic risks. The study additionally examines the link between ESG disclosures and firms’ risk and the association between uncertainties and firms’ risk to demonstrate the viability of risk-reduction theory and stakeholder theory. The results indicate that the quantity of ESG disclosures plays a significant role in moderating the association between uncertainties and the risks faced by various segments of the tourism sector (Recreation & Entertainment, Transportation, and Hospitality & Restaurants). This shows that the active participation of tourism firms in sustainability activities can assist firms in this industry to better manage risk and mitigate the impact of uncertainties more effectively.

The developing countries have now learnt lessons from their planning lacune and have evinced consciousness for research based planned tourism development which should be integrated intersectorally to maximise gains in different environments. Considering overall effects, tourism development plan should be flexible and adjustable in Ihe national frame-work. Professionally planned and executed tourism has better chance of making national and international impacts.

The goal of this study is to determine whether the effects of shocks to tourism receipts and GDP are transitory or permanent in 10 major tourism destinations (Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, and the US) using data from 1995 to 2022. The study initially employs unit root tests that employ a variety of methods for modeling structural breaks, then performs a unit root test that is based on artificial intelligence. According to the results of the artificial intelligence-based unit root test, the effects of shocks to tourism receipts are transitory in Italy, Japan, and Mexico, while the effects of shocks to GDP are temporary in Australia, Poland, and Switzerland. The study provides policy recommendations for the tourism and hospitality sector and GDP in countries where the impacts of shocks are enduring.

Informal entrepreneurship is woven into the economic fabric of South Africa’s tourism sector. Some people are ‘pushed’ into the sector by a lack of opportunities in the formal economy; others are ‘pulled’ into the informal sector by the prospect of better livelihoods, independence and personal fulfilment. Starting any business requires different types of capital (financial, social, human and psychological). While many studies have explored these aspects in relation to entrepreneurs/firms in the formal sector, how they impact the informal sector is less well understood. In this study, we examined the relationships between informal entrepreneurs’ motives, the different forms of capital available to them, and business success. Data were collected through structured questionnaires in three major South African cities. Multivariate statistics and quantile regression analysis revealed synergies between capital types and entrepreneurial motives, highlighting that success reflects not only the availability of capital but also the effective strategic utilisation of resources.