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Arid Land Geography ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (10): 1866-1877.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2024.744

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research on the impact of civil aviation opening on tourism economy in Xinjiang

BAI Yang1,2(), ZHAO Ping2, WU Jian3(), LIU Xiaoyan1,2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory for Sustainable Development of Historical and Cultural Tourism, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
    2. College of Tourism, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
    3. Urumqi County Cultural Center, Urumqi 830037, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2024-12-03 Revised:2025-04-17 Online:2025-10-25 Published:2025-10-27
  • Contact: WU Jian E-mail:baiyang@xju.edu.cn;jiate54826@163.com

Abstract:

Using city panel data from Xinjiang, China, this paper summarizes the civil aviation opening to the regional tourism economy. It uses a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model and mediation effect model to analyze the direct and moderating effects of the civil aviation opening on the tourism economy in Xinjiang. It also examines the mediating effect of the combination of different modes of rapid transportation on tourism economy in Xinjiang. The study finds that: (1) In the driving mechanism of civil aviation opening on the regional tourism economy, the construction of civil aviation facilities and the demand for civil aviation tourism are external pull forces and internal push forces affecting the tourism economy. (2) Xinjiang's tourism economy shows an evolutionary trend of high growth and high volatility and an evolution pattern of edge multi-point aggregation→central aggregation diffusion. (3) The opening of civil aviation effectively reduces travel time costs, positively and significantly impacting Xinjiang's tourism economy, with the validation model passing a series of robustness tests. (4) The moderating effects of the quantity and quality of civil aviation tourism demand on the tourism economy of southern and northern Xinjiang have obvious differences, and the heterogeneous impact effects of the civil aviation opening on tourism economy in southern and northern Xinjiang and the different consumption-intensity city regions are significantly different. (5) The combination of different rapid transportation modes has complex mediating effects and exhibits multiple competition and cooperation relationships in terms of the tourism economy of Xinjiang.

Key words: civil aviation opening, tourism economy, multi-period DID model, influence effect, Xinjiang