Table.
Definitions of variables and basic statistics.
| Variable | Definition | Mean (S.D) |
|---|---|---|
| TOUR | The number of overnight-stay international tourist arrivals for province i from country j (thousands). | 40.474 (98.454) |
| CPGDP | The relative real per capita GDP between country j and province i. | 15.083 (20.267) |
| POP | Population of the country of origin (millions) | 83.205 (82.053) |
| EXCH | Exchange rate. It is denoted as the ratio of foreign currency to Chinese Yuan | 7.986 (2.615) |
| DIS | Geographic distance between the capital city of province i and country j (KM) | 9893.028 (3537.081) |
| ACCOM | The number of star-class hotels in province i (source: http://www.elong.com) | 96.077 (134.955) |
| INFRA | Infrastructure: the sum of operated railways and roads in province i (thousands of kilometers) | 58.759 (35.114) |
| CRIME | Public security. It is measured by the number of criminal cases defended per year | 10430.63 (6428.29) |
| HR | Health risk. It is proxied by the number of hospital beds. (thousands) | 10.428 (5.615) |
| WHS | The number of World Heritage Sites in province i. | 1.064 (1.374) |
| 43A | The sum of 4A and 3A spots, excluding the World Heritage Sites | 18.519 (15.754) |
| CUL | The number of historical and cultural spots FDI inflow (RMB billion) | 5.058 (5.177) |
| NATURE | The number of natural spots | 8.474 (7.494) |
| MODERN | The number of modern and man-made spots (RMB million) | 6.199 (6.304) |
Note: The means and standard errors of variables are calculated by pooling the data for the 2000–2005 period.