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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (7): 1493-1508.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.459

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanism of coupling coordination between tourism economy and residents’ well-being in the Yellow River Basin

GAO Ying1(), ZHOU Keli1, YUAN Yuan1,2(), SHI Xinru1, WU Jialin1   

  1. 1 Faculty of Geographical Science and Engineering, Henan University, Zhengzhou 450046, Henan, China
    2 Key Laboratory of Digital Geographical Technology for the Middle and Lower Yellow River, Ministry of Education, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, China
  • Received:2025-08-03 Revised:2025-09-09 Online:2026-07-25 Published:2026-07-07
  • Contact: YUAN Yuan E-mail:13183278012@163.com;yuanyuan_8575@163.com

Abstract:

The synergistic development and mutual empowerment of the tourism economy and residents’ well-being are the core pathway to advancing high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin of China. This study selected 78 prefecture-level cities in the basin as the sample. By constructing a comprehensive index evaluation system and employing methods such as the entropy weighted technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution, the coupling coordination model, exploratory spatial data analysis, geographical detector, and the geographically and temporally weighted regression model, this study systematically analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution of coupling coordination between the tourism economy and residents’ well-being in the basin from 2013 to 2022. It also clarifies the current development status of their coupling coordination level and explores its multi-dimensional driving mechanisms from three dimensions—natural endowment, economic development, and social civilization. The research findings are as follows: (1) The coupling coordination degree between the tourism economy and residents’ well-being in the Yellow River Basin exhibits an overall “M” shaped trend. The coupling coordination degree demonstrates distinct spatial differentiation characterized by higher values in the east and lower values in the west, forming a concentric-layer structure with core-periphery diffusion. (2) The coupled and coordinated development of these two aspects within the Yellow River Basin is influenced by the interplay of three factors—natural endowment, economic development, and social civilization. Among these, natural endowment offers the fundamental support for development; economic growth serves as the core driving force; and social civilization plays a regulatory and supporting role. (3) Green coverage area, regional gross domestic product, total fixed asset investment, and the proportion of tourism-related fixed asset investment promote the coordinated coupling between tourism economics and residents’ well-being in the Yellow River Basin. Conversely, population density per unit of land area exerts a certain inhibitory effect on this coupling. Each influencing factor exhibits distinct spatial heterogeneity. The Yellow River Basin upstream efforts should strengthen ecological development to enhance the advantages of ecotourism. Midstream initiatives should promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into tourism applications. Downstream measures should improve investment quality and innovation efficiency.

Key words: tourism economy, residents’ well-being, coupling coordination, spatiotemporal characteristics, Yellow River Basin