关键词: 旅游经济, 生态环境, 居民福祉, 耦合协调度, 黄河流域

Abstract:

The tourism economy, ecological environment, and residents’ well-being, the key elements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), constitute a dynamic and interdependent system characterized by complex and multidimensional interactions. Challenges such as maintaining sustained global economic growth, increasing resource scarcity, ecological degradation, and evolving social needs emphasize the importance of investigating the coupled and coordinated relationships among the tourism economy, ecological environment, and residents’ well-being. This is crucial for achieving national strategy goals and advancing the SDGs. Using the Yellow River Basin as a case study, this study develops a comprehensive evaluation index system for tourism, ecology, and well-being. The coupling coordination degree model, exploratory spatial data analysis, and geo-probe were employed to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution, as well as the differentiation mechanisms, of the coupling and coordination among the tourism economy, ecological environment, and residents; well-being from 2010 to 2022. The analysis is conducted from the perspectives of watersheds, urban agglomerations, and municipal areas. The study reveals the following findings: (1) From 2010 to 2022, the ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin improved, whereas the levels of the tourism economy and resident well-being declined, exhibiting a distribution pattern of “high in the east, low in the west”. The ecological environment system exhibited the most significant improvement, whereas the tourism economy system advanced at a slower pace. Regional disparities in tourism economy development were pronounced, with significant fluctuations driven largely by epidemic outbreaks. (2) The coupling coordination level of the three systems exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, remaining at a marginally coordinated stage for an extended period. Significant scale-dependent differences were observed in coupling coordination: At the basin scale, a clear gradient emerged from the upper to the lower reaches, with higher coordination in the middle and lower reaches; at the urban agglomeration scale, a “wedge-shaped” spatial pattern appeared; and at the city scale, the pattern was characterized as “cold in the west and hot in the east”, with distinct polarization among leaders. (3) The number of national key cultural heritage sites, star-rated hotels, travel agencies, and A-level tourist attractions, along with road density and air quality index, were identified as the main factors driving the spatial differentiation of coupling coordination. The interactions among these factors manifested in two forms—bivariate enhancement and nonlinear enhancement. The driving effects of bivariate interactions were significantly stronger than those of individual factors, highlighting pronounced nonlinear enhancement characteristics. This study offers scientific evidence and policy implications for promoting high-quality development and coordinated prosperity across the Yellow River Basin.

Key words: tourism economy, ecological environment, residents’ well-being, coupling coordination degree, Yellow River Basin