As the main stakeholders and promoters, local governments are playing an increasingly significant role in local tourism development. However, up to now, little attention has been given to the effect of characteristics of local government leaders on tourism development. Based on a unique city leader–linked data set of 30 typical tourism-dependent cities for the period 2005–2018, this study explores the effect of the tenure and the personal characteristics of local leaders on tourism development. It is found that there is an inverted-U-shaped relationship between the tenure of the local leaders and tourism development. Moreover, compared with the local leaders without work experience in tourism sectors, the local leaders with work experience in tourism sectors have more advantages in boosting tourism development.
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