Coupling coordination and driving mechanism of tourism industry, urbanization, and ecological environment: a case study of Shandong, China.

The understanding of the coupling relationship between tourism industry, urbanization, and ecological environment is important due to the complex interaction in environmental effects induced by tourism industry and urbanization. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation index system of tourism industry, urbanization, and ecological environment is established, and the coupling degrees and coordination degrees of the three subsystems of Shandong province in China from 2001 to 2017 are calculated. After identifying the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of coupling of the subsystems, this paper summarizes the driving factors of tourism industry, urbanization, and ecological environment. The results shown are as follows: (1) The level of comprehensive development of Shandong's tourism industry and urbanization subsystems has steadily increased, while its ecological environment subsystem has shown fluctuating development trends between 2001 and 2017. (2) The coupling coordination degree of tourism industry, urbanization, and ecological environment has increased from a low level of coordination to a very high level of coordination. A spatial difference in coupling coordination between cities is more unbalanced. The coupling coordination of "dual-core" cities (Qingdao and Jinan) is better than that of other cities. (3) The main factors influencing spatial differentiation are regional economic strength, industrial structure, market scale, technological innovation ability, government regulation, and control factors. Different factors have obvious temporal heterogeneity. The significance of this research not only helps increase the focus on ecological tourism and new urbanization, but also optimize the quality and path of tourism industry and new urbanization development, promote an environmentally friendly society, and achieve high-quality economic development and sustainable development in Shandong Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]