  Climate change has become an unavoidable problem in achieving sustainable
development. As one of the major industries worldwide, tourism can make a
significant contribution to mitigating climate change. The main objective of
the paper is to assess the development level of low-carbon tourism from
multi-aspect, using the Yellow River Basin as an example. Firstly, this study
quantified tourism carbon dioxide emissions and tourism economy, and analyzed
their evolution characteristics. The interaction and coordination degree
between tourism carbon dioxide emissions and tourism economy were then analyzed
using the improved coupling coordination degree model. Finally, this study
analyzed the change in total factor productivity of low-carbon tourism by
calculating the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index. The results showed
that: (1) The tourism industry in the Yellow River Basin has the
characteristics of the initial environmental Kuznets curve. (2) There was a
strong interaction between tourism carbon dioxide emissions and tourism
economy, which was manifested as mutual promotion. (3) The total factor
productivity of low-carbon tourism was increasing. Based on the above results,
it could be concluded that the development level of low-carbon tourism in the
Yellow River Basin has been continuously improved from 2000 to 2019, but it is
still in the early development stage with the continuous growth of carbon
dioxide emissions.
