Innovation Series: Advanced Science (ISSN 2938-9933, CNKI Indexed)

Study on the Coupling Coordination Relationship and Its Spatiotemporal Characteristics between Tourism Resource Development and Regional Economic Growth in Shaanxi Province

Chunjie Cai, Zhuangzhuang Zhang

Xi'an FanYi University, Xi'an 710105, China

Abstract: Against the backdrop of deep cultural–tourism integration and high-quality regional development, the synergistic interplay between tourism resource development (TRD) and the regional economy constitutes a central pathway for the transformation and upgrading of resource-rich provinces in central and western China. Taking Shaanxi Province and its 11 prefecture-level units as the study area, this paper constructs two evaluation systems for TRD and regional economic development (RED), and applies the entropy weight method, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, and a synchrony model to panel data covering 2015–2023 to quantitatively measure the level of coordinated development and its spatiotemporal evolution. The results show that: (1) the CCD of the two systems improved steadily, progressing from serious imbalance in 2015 to mild imbalance in 2023, yet remained within the imbalanced stage throughout, indicating a persistent bottleneck in coordination improvement; (2) the two systems developed in marked disequilibrium, as sustained economic growth served as the core driver of coordination while the lagging upgrading of TRD acted as the principal constraint, leaving the province in a persistent tourism-lagged state; (3) city-level analysis reveals pronounced spatial differentiation, forming a gradient pattern of “Guanzhong leading, Shaanbei intermediate, and Shannan lagging,” and the cities can be classified into three types: tourism-lagged, synchronous, and economy-lagged. Differentiated development pathways are proposed to address the principal shortcomings of each type, providing decision support for integrated cultural–tourism and economic development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Keywords: Tourism resource development; Regional economy; Coupling coordination degree; Spatiotemporal differentiation; Shaanxi Province

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