Abstract: It is of great significance to examine how low-carbon city pilot policies influence energy conservation, emission reduction, and quality upgrading in the tourism sector, viewed through the lens of tourism eco-efficiency. This paper reveals the impact mechanism of low-carbon city pilot policy on tourism eco-efficiency. Based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper adopts the staggered difference-in-differences model to analyze the implementation effect of low-carbon city pilot policy. The empirical results show that the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy can significantly promote the improvement of tourism eco-efficiency, mainly through technological innovation effect, industrial structure effect and the creation of green demand. Further research finds that the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on tourism eco-efficiency is significantly heterogeneous. From the perspective of urban administrative hierarchy and urban type, compared with non-provincial cities and excellent tourism cities, the promotion effect of low-carbon city pilot policy on tourism eco-efficiency is more prominent in provincial capital cities and general tourism cities. Based on the perspective of "Hu Huanyong Line", there is no significant difference in the policy effect of low-carbon city pilots on the northwest and southeast half-wall cities. From the perspective of tourism situation characteristics, the promotion effect of low-carbon city pilot policy on tourism eco-efficiency mainly exists in cities with high tourism scale.

Key words: low-carbon city pilot, tourism eco-efficiency, heterogeneity, staggered difference-in-differences model, 280 prefecture-level cities in China