Public diplomacy as a determinant of bilateral tourism between the influencer and influencee countries: evidence from the Asia-Pacific region

This article explores whether and how a novel index of Chinese public diplomacy influences the flow of tourists between China and countries in the Asia-Pacific region from 2000 to 2019. Countries more actively influenced by Chinese public diplomatic activities are found to have supported a larger inbound and outbound tourists with China. Sister-cities relationship, exchange students, and informational contacts in our composite index are drivers of our finding. Our results contribute to expanding the knowledge on the informal political communication aspect of bilateral tourism determinationand the important role of public diplomacy in the hospitality and tourism context.