Can the integration of cultural and tourism development narrow the regional income gap? The role of foreign direct investment

This paper relies on provincial panel data from China between 2010 and 2023 to systematically examine the mechanism linking the integrated development of the cultural tourism industry with the dynamic equilibrium of income disparities between urban and rural residents. It further investigates the moderating effect of foreign direct investment in this process. The econometric analysis results indicate that the integration of the cultural and tourism industries significantly suppresses the income gap between urban and rural residents. Foreign direct investment plays a notable moderating role in the relationship between the integration of cultural tourism and income disparities, exhibiting significant regional heterogeneity. Further spatial heterogeneity tests reveal that the impact of cultural tourism integration on income disparities shows pronounced differences across various regions.