A Coupling Relationship between New-Type Urbanization and Tourism Resource Conversion Efficiency: A Case Study of the Yellow River Basin in China

Abstract

The integrated development of new-type urbanization and tourism is of great significance for social development. Based on panel data of nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2019, models such as entropy TOPSIS, the super-SBM model, the coupling coordination degree model, the GM (1,1) model, Tobit regression, and other methods were used to explore the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between new-type urbanization and tourism resource conversion efficiency (TRCE) in the Yellow River Basin. The results show that, during the research period: (1) The development index of new-type urbanization in the Yellow River Basin showed a steady upwards trend and TRCE was generally stable. (2) The CCD between new-type urbanization and TRCE in the Yellow River Basin fluctuated and rose with an average annual CCD of 0.716, indicating an intermediate coordination stage, and showed an overall spatial distribution pattern of “midstream region > downstream region > upstream region”. The center of gravity of the CCD shifted to the northwest and the type of CCD jumped rapidly to a better stage, especially in the midstream region. From the perspective of future trends, the coupling and coordination relationship between the two major systems will continue to be optimized from 2019 to 2025 and the midstream region will maintain a high growth level. (3) The industrial structure, cultural media investment, science and technology investment, and communication level are important factors that affect the CCD of new-type urbanization and TRCE in the Yellow River Basin. The CCD of new-type urbanization and TRCE in the Yellow River Basin tends to be better as a whole, but the regional differences are obvious. Therefore, in the process of policy implementation, special attention should be given to the understanding of regional differences to avoid policy failure. This is very important to the Yellow River Basin and equally important to other regions.