Title: The spatio-temporal evolution of tourism eco-efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and its interactive response with tourism economy
Abstract: Abstract: Tourism eco-efficiency is an important index to measure the coordination degree of regional human-land system and sustainable development level. Firstly, the Super-SBM model of non-expected output is used to measure the tourism eco-efficiency of 11 provincial-level areas in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2007 to 2016. Secondly, by means of non-parametric kernel density estimation, standard deviation ellipse and gravity center model, the spatio-temporal evolution trajectory of tourism eco-efficiency in the economic belt is described. Finally, VAR model is applied to explore the interactive response relationship between tourism eco-efficiency and tourism economic development level. The results show that: (1) The tourism eco-efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is generally in the stage of medium efficiency and tends to increase with time. Specifically, the tourism eco-efficiency in the eastern region fluctuates in an "M" pattern and decreases on the whole, while the tourism eco-efficiency in the central and western regions shows a fluctuated increase. On the provincial level, the tourism eco-efficiency in Shanghai (1.787), Guizhou (1.616), Jiangsu (1.325) and Chongqing (1.051) are in the stage of high efficiency, while that in Zhejiang (0.319), Anhui (0.451), Hubei (0.404), Hunan (0.310) and Yunnan (0.400) are in the stage of low efficiency. (2) During the research period, the tourism eco-efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt presents a trend of "double peaks" from left to right and from high to low as a whole. With the elapse of time, the center of density function moves to the right, and the characteristics of "double peaks" become more and more obvious, basically forming a pattern of "double peaks" and "club convergence" phenomenon of "low concentration and high agglomeration". The growth trend of tourism eco-efficiency is obvious, and the regional differences is gradually narrowed. The overall tourism eco-efficiency shows a movement trend from southeast to northwest in the spatial distribution. (3) The impulse response of the tourism eco-efficiency and the tourism economic development level in the eastern and central regions fluctuated in the early stage and then tended to be stable, while the response of the two in the western region was not significant. At the end of the study, the impulse response of the tourism eco-efficiency and the tourism economic development level in Guizhou shows a significant response. The results of variance decomposition show that the contribution rate of the tourism economic development level to the tourism eco-efficiency in the eastern, central and western regions increases gradually with the development of time, and the contribution rate of the tourism eco-efficiency to the tourism economic development level decreases gradually with the elapse of time.