Evaluate on the Decoupling of Tourism Economic Development and Ecological-Environmental Stress in China

Abstract

Tourism economic development is increasingly dependent on resources and environment. Exploring the relationship between tourism economic development and ecological-environmental (eco-environmental) stress is of great significance to promote the high-quality growth of tourism and the sustainable and coordinated development of ecological environment. By constructing a tourism economic development index and an eco-environmental stress index, this study analyzes the temporal and spatial evolution of tourism economic development and eco-environmental stress from 2009 to 2018 in China. It uses a decoupling model to evaluate the relationship between tourism economic development and ecological-environmental stress, and analyzes the reasons for the changes of decoupling relationship. The results show that: (1) During the study period, the development of tourism economy and the eco-environmental stress present a certain time-space effect characteristics. The stress index of China’s tourism economic development and ecological environment showed a fluctuating trend of first decreasing and then increasing, with obvious spatial hierarchical differences and weak agglomeration characteristics, and prominent regional imbalances. The tourism economic development level in the eastern region was higher than that in the central and western regions, while the ecological environment stress in the central region was greater than that in the eastern and western regions. (2) The relationship between tourism economic development and ecological environmental stress of China’s provinces has experienced eight states: Expansive negative decoupling, strong negative decoupling, weak negative decoupling, recessive coupling, expansive coupling, strong decoupling, weak decoupling, and recessive decoupling. During the study period, the state of optimal strong decoupling tends to weaken. Under the constraints of local policy orientation and regional economic development level, the overall decoupling optimization could not be achieved spatially. The decoupling state was always in an unsustainable non-optimal stage. (3) The reasons for the differential changes in the decoupling index between tourism economic development and ecological environmental stress in Chinese provinces come from investment-driven, resource-driven, innovation-driven, and environmental compliance push. This study can provide practical reference for promoting the high-quality development of tourism and the sustainable development of ecological environment.