Dynamic evolution characteristics and driving factors of tourism ecosystem health in China

Abstract

Tourism ecosystem health is key to high-quality tourism development. China is now promoting sustainable development and high-quality transformation and upgrading of regional tourism; thus, the research on tourism ecosystem health is of practical significance. Based on the DPSIR model, an evaluation index system of tourism ecosystem health in China was constructed. Then the entropy weight method, spatial autocorrelation analysis, Markov chain analysis, and quantile regression were used to explore the dynamic evolution characteristics and driving factors of tourism ecosystem health in China from 2011 to 2020. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) The tourism ecosystem health in China showed an M-shaped fluctuation process as a whole, with significant spatial correlation and spatial difference. (2) There was a “path-dependent” and “self-locking” effect on the type transfer of tourism ecosystem health, and the type transfer was mainly between adjacent types in successive transfers, with the probability of downward transfer higher than upward transfer, and the geospatial background played a significant role in its dynamic evolution process. (3) In provinces with low tourism ecosystem health type, the negative effect of technological innovation capacity was more significant, and the influence coefficient of the positive effect of tourism environmental regulation and information technology level was larger, while in provinces with high tourism ecosystem health type, the negative effect of tourism industry agglomeration was more significant, and the influence coefficient of the positive effect of tourism industry structure and tourism land-use scale was larger.