Can ‘brand effect’ promote the development of the tourism economy? – A quasi-natural experiment based on 204 cities

Tourism branding is crucial for the high-quality development of the tourism economy. Governmental departments foster this development by creating distinctive tourism brands through 'scenic spot selection', thereby stimulating regional economic growth via the 'brand effect'. This study employs the '5A' scenic spot selection as a quasi-natural experiment, utilising panel data from 204 prefecture-level cities in China spanning 2007–2019. It applies staggered difference-in-differences and spatial difference-in-differences methods to evaluate the policy impact of scenic spot selection on urban tourism economic development and to analyze its heterogeneity and spatial effects. The findings demonstrate that high-grade scenic spots can indeed foster tourism economic development through the 'brand effect', although disparities exist among regions. This paper elucidates the policy implications of scenic spot selection on tourism economic development and offers a critical reference for optimising the spatial allocation of tourism resources and cultivating distinctive tourism brands.