The Impact of Informatization on the Relationship between the Tourism Industry and Regional Economic Development

Modern tourism plays an increasingly important economic role in regional development. However, in the practice of regional economic development, there is often a lag in economic development where the tourism industry is prosperous. We explored the potential impact of the development level of informatization on the coupling and coordination relationship between the tourism industry and regional economic development. Using provincial panel data from 2008 to 2017, we constructed a spatial Dubin model for empirical research. We established an evaluation model for the coupling and coordination relationship between tourism and regional economic development based on the establishment of evaluation models and indicator systems for informatization, tourism, and regional economic development. The results show that improvements to informatization generally promoted the coupling and coordination of tourism and regional economic development. Informatization not only improved the coupling and coordination of tourism and economic development in the region but also had significant spatial spillover effects. In addition to the influencing factors at the information level, the advantages of tourism resources and the level of economic development on the whole also helped to improve the degree of coupling and coordination, while the widening of the income gap between urban and rural areas hindered coordinated development. Further discussion shows that informatization will affect the degree of coupling and coordination between the tourism industry and regional economic development by influencing the level of institutional environment. The findings highlight the need to focus on diversified development of the regional tourism industry and economy while improving the level of informatization and strengthening cross-regional cooperation during informatization. The conclusions contribute to improving the coordinated development of regional tourism and regional economy and provide a scientific basis for the development of informatization and the formulation of tourism and economic policies.