Analysis of the Coordination Effects and Influencing Factors of Transportation and Tourism Development in Shaanxi Region

Abstract

With the accelerated growth of global tourism and the increasing availability of transport, the coordination and interaction between the tourism economy and transport have become a topic of great interest. This study seeks to analyse the coordination effects and influencing factors of Shaanxi’s tourism economy and transportation, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of the region’s tourism economy. To achieve this, we develop a tourism economy–transportation evaluation index system and employ the system coupled with the coordination model and entropy method to conduct a thorough analysis. The research spans over the years 2003–2021. According to the findings of this study, the integration and coordination of tourism economy–transportation and tourism development in Shaanxi are exhibiting an upward development trend. Over the years, the degree of coupling coordination has progressed through the stages of uncoordinated development, transformational development, and coordinated development, with the recent epidemic upheaval resulting in a primary level of coordination. In addition, the transport system has a significant impact on the coupled and coordinated development of the tourism economy–, with the size of the transport base and transport efficiency serving as the driving factors and transport pressure and epidemic shocks serving as significant influencing factors. Due to the fluctuations of the global pandemic, the coordination of the tourism system declines sharply in 2020, but recovers in 2021 as the pandemic progressively stabilises. Through this study, we can gain a better understanding of the relationship between the tourism economy and transport in Shaanxi and devise strategies and policies to support the development of sustainable transport and tourism systems.