Examining China's tourism impact on carbon emissions under the "dual-carbon" strategy is crucial for theoretical and practical advancements, which plays a pivotal role in crafting precise emission reduction policies, promoting low-carbon tourism, and addressing climate change challenges adeptly. This study employs panel data encompassing 30 provinces and municipalities in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Tibet) from 2003 to 2019 to comprehensively examine the intricate correlation between tourism development and carbon emissions across the eastern, central, and western regions. Through a meticulous analysis involving domestic tourism and inbound tourism, the study employs panel unit root tests, cointegration analysis, Granger causality tests, as well as fixed-effects and random-effects models. Results indicate that 1) A long-term equilibrium relationship exists between the development of China's tourism industry and carbon emissions. 2) Inbound tourism shows no significant impact on carbon emissions, whereas domestic tourism demonstrates a significantly positive effect. 3) Variations in the tourism-carbon emissions relationship are observed across different regions: the Eastern and Central regions show that 1% increase in domestic tourism revenue leads to a respective increase of 2.313% and 7.531% in carbon emissions. Conversely, the Western region experiences 1.306% decrease in carbon emissions for every 1% increase in domestic tourism revenue.