High-speed rail network in China: the contribution of fast trains to regional tourism and economic development

Purpose The high-speed rail network can lead to the transformation of the tourism industry, as well as the regional economy. In the present study, a reasonable method was developed to assess the contributions of high-speed rail network to the development of tourism and economy in a Chinese region known as the “1 + 8” city tourism circle. Design/methodology/approach The method proposed here combines not only tourism revenue but also regional economy in a MGM (1, n) gray model, and it studies the tourist and economic output of this tourism circle before and after the high-speed rail network’s construction using an advanced “with and without comparison” method. Findings By using this method, the accuracy of the prediction of the contribution rate of high-speed rail network is improved. We found that in the “1 + 8” city tourism circle, the high-speed rail network positively contributes to increase of the tourism arrival and tourism revenue. Furthermore, regional economy significantly grows under the impact of the high-speed rail network. Research limitations/implications The “1 + 8” city tourism circle is studied as a closed system in this paper, and the authors focus on the economic associations between the cities in the circle by ignoring the impact from outside this circle. This treatment means, simplifies and enables the feasibility of this study, but it virtually leads to the deviation of outcomes between this study and the practical. Practical implications For theoretical values, by studying a normal Chinese inland region, this study reconfirmed the positive impact of high-speed railway empirically. In the meantime, this study developed an improved method by introducing gray theory models to “with and without comparison” method to calculate the contribution of high-speed railway to the regional tourism and economy development. Such method simultaneously incorporates the indexes of regional tourism income and regional GDP simultaneously. It is direct and convenient as it can achieve accuracy requirements using only a small amount of data, and it reconciles more with reality by considering the interaction of the outcomes of tourism and economy. Social implications For practical values, using the proposed method, a direct and convenient calculation of the contributions of high-speed railway to many other regions can be achieved if the data of the outcomes of tourism and economy can be obtained. In such a way, the regions that really need high-speed railway to stimulate their development can be distinguished from regions whose high-speed railway is under blind construction. Thus, the government may take actions to reassess some uneconomic high-speed railway projects without discouraging the construction of high-speed railway in other regions. The authors believe that this is important not only for China but also for many other countries with high-speed railway projects. Originality/value This study develops a reasonable method of assessing the contribution of high-speed rail to regional tourism and economic development. Using this method, this study confirmed that high-speed rail indeed positively impacts the regional development.