Coordination or contradiction? The spatiotemporal relationship between ecological environment and tourism development within the tourism ecological security framework in China

Tourism ecological security (TES) can be used to determine the health and quality of tourism ecosystems. Investigating the interaction between the ecological environment (EE) and tourism development (TD) status within the tourism ecosystems is an important scientific issue for exploring the regional TES level. This study constructed a theoretical framework for regional TES from the perspectives of TD and EE. The spatiotemporal dynamics pattern, coupling coordination degree, and influencing factors of provincial TES in China were measured and characterized using panel data for China from 2000 to 2019. The results indicated that the TES levels exhibited significant spatial variability across China, with high values observed in the eastern and southern provinces, while lower concentrations were found in the western and northern regions. 54.84% of the provinces showed synergistic growth in TES. Provinces with significant synergistic growth were primarily concentrated in the south-central and southeastern regions, while the northeastern region, the Yangtze River Delta region, and Tibet did not demonstrate equivalent levels of growth. The EE and TD in provinces along the eastern coast exhibited a notable degree of coupling coordination, whereas those in the northern, northeastern, northwestern, and southwestern regions displayed a relatively lower degree of coupling coordination. Factors such as regional economic development, ecological system quality, traffic carrying capacity, tourism potential, tourism load, and tourism reception capacity could influence the coupling coordination between EE and TD. Finally, this study provided some management guidelines to improve the regional TES level and coupling coordination degree between EE and TD.