Analysis on Tourism Environmental Pollution and Tourism Economy-Ecological Environmental Coordination Degree: A Case Study from China

Abstract

The rapid development of the tourism industry, range expansion, and intensity growth of human tourism activity have all caused intensifying ecological environmental problems while bringing considerable economic benefits. The ecological environment is currently faced with huge pressures due to the unreasonable tourism resource development, annual decrease in bearing capacity of the tourism environment, and excessive tourism consumption. To coordinate the relationship between tourism economic growth and ecological environment, this work carried out a case study based on Shandong Province, China. First, four aspects of environmental pollution caused by tourism were analyzed. Second, the tourism economy-ecological environmental coordination degree model and index system were established and then the coordination degree in Shandong Province from 2002 to 2019 was estimated. Results show that the tourism industry causes the following typical pollutions: water, soil, air, and noise. The coupling coordination degree (D) between the tourism economy and ecological environment in Shandong Province increased from 0.100 in 2002 to 0.995 in 2019, indicating the transition from serious imbalance to a high-quality coordination state. It is suggested to further promote tourism economy-ecological environment coordinated development by innovating the tourism-economy coupling development mode, creating the entire tourism industrial chain, increasing efforts in tourism reform, and exploring and implementing ecological compensation policies. Research conclusions have important significances to further study and explore the development status between the tourism industry and ecological environment and realize the coordinated development between the tourism industry and regional economy.