Analysis of coupled coordination and spatial interaction effects between digital and tourism economy in the Yangtze River Delta region

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 8; p. e0307756
• Main Authors: Yang, Zeyun, Sang, Senyao, Zhu, Yaru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 29.08.2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Accounting; Artificial intelligence; Big Data; Biology and Life Sciences; Blockchain; China; Cities; Cloud computing; Clustering; Computer and Information Sciences; Coordination; Coupling; Digital economy; Digital technology; Earth Sciences; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Economic aspects; Economic conditions; Economic development; Economics; Efficiency; Engineering and Technology; Entropy (statistics); Environmental aspects; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Humans; Medicine and Health Sciences; People and Places; Regional development; Regions; Rivers; Service industries; Social aspects; Social Sciences; Sustainable development; Technology and civilization; Tourism; Tourism development; Travel industry; Weighting methods; China; Yangtze River Delta
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307756

The coupled and coordinated development of the digital economy and tourism economy has become an inevitable choice for achieving high-quality development in both sectors. This paper proposes a conceptual index system using entropy weight method and coupling coordination degree model for analysis of the coupling coordination relationship between digital economy and tourism economy. After that, the paper introduces the Moran's Index to examines the spatial heterogeneous effects of coupling coordination degree. This framework is applied to 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region during 2011-2021. The results show that the temporal changes of the coupling coordination relationship between digital economy and tourism economy in 41 cities are quite satisfactory, while the regional differences are large. Furthermore, the coupling degree between digital economy and tourism economy shows the strong spatial agglomeration effect, and the spatial proximity of regions with similar integration indicates that the "Matthew Effect" gradually highlights the clustering of high and low levels. Based on the results of analysis, this paper finally puts forward several policy recommendations to provide a referential path for the integration of digital economy and tourism.