Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Resilience of Tourism Environmental Systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China

Abstract

The resilience of a tourism environmental system (TESR) is an important aspect of sustainable tourism growth. Based on the construction of an evaluation system for the TESR, this study used 126 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as a case study and attempted to explore the spatio-temporal evolution features and influencing mechanism of the TESR. The primary conclusions are as follows: (1) Despite significant improvement in TESR in the YREB, the overall resilience level and growth rate remain relatively low, with ample potential for improvement. (2) Positive spatial correlation and type agglomeration impact are evident in the urban TESR. (3) Relatively frequent transitions of the TESR occur with spatial dependence and spillover effects in the transition paths, i.e., high-level cities can improve the TESR of neighboring cities through positive spillover effects. (4) Several factors, such as city economic, social, industrial, and policy factors, jointly impact the evolution of the pattern of the TESR in the YREB, with heterogeneous effects.