Spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of tourism development efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Tourism is expanding worldwide with vital implications for narrowing the regional development gap and facilitating cultural exchange. Evidence on regional differences in the influencing factors and spatiotemporal characteristics of tourism development efficiency (TDE) can provide a scientific basis for the coordinated sus-tainable development of regional tourism. Nevertheless, there is a limited understanding of the spatial transfer characteristics of TDE and the regional heterogeneity. This study fills the gap by describing the spatial transfer characteristics of the TDE of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) during 2000-2019 by using slacks-based measure-data envelopment analysis, the Theil index, and spatial Markov chain methods. The influencing factors have been further discussed based on a quantitative analysis of both natural and socioeconomic factors using a Tobit regression analysis. The results demonstrated that the average efficiency of tourism development in the YREB had been at a moderate level from 2000 to 2019, thereby showing the decreasing characteristics of "upper reaches > middle reaches > lower reaches". The spatial transfer characteristics revealed the phenomenon of "spatiotemporal evolution convergence". Moreover, factors such as per capita GDP, the proportion of tourism in the service industry, and average temperature had significant impacts on TDE in the YREB, with different impact intensities. In particular, the TDE of the middle and lower reaches was more affected by socioeconomic factors, whereas the upper reaches were more affected by natural factors. The findings suggest that these influencing factors and the convergence of spatiotemporal evolution should be considered in the policymaking of high -quality and regional tourism development in the YREB.