Martinson Ankrah Twumasi, Bin Lai, Isaac Appiah‐Otoo, Lian Li, Yuyan Luo
ABSTRACT This study, motivated by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3) to ensure healthy lives for all age groups, examines the moderating effect of institutional quality (characterized by rule of law, control of corruption, government effectiveness, voice and accountability, political stability, and regulatory quality) in the tourism development‐life expectancy relationship across five BRICS countries from 1996 to 2023. Using fixed effects with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, we found that tourism development enhances life expectancy in BRICS; however, voice and accountability and regulatory quality act as substitutes in reducing the positive impact of tourism development on life expectancy, while rule of law, government effectiveness, and control of corruption complement tourism development to improve life expectancy. The study showed that above the threshold value of −1.69 for the rule of law, −0.22 for government effectiveness, and −0.84 for control of corruption, these proxies will promote tourism development to boost life expectancy. Conversely, exceeding the threshold values of 0 for voice and accountability and −0.06 for regulatory quality will help these proxies mitigate the positive effect of tourism development on life expectancy within the scale of −2.5 to 2.5. The study's findings signal the essence of promoting institutional quality reforms to ensure tourism and welfare development.