Synergizing high-quality tourism development and digital economy: a coupling coordination analysis in Chinese prefecture-level cities

With the rapid development of digital economy(DE), it provides a new driving force for high-quality tourism development(HQTD). How to coordinate HQTD and DE is a urgent issue to be resolved. In this study, the coupling coordination degree(CCD) between HQTD and DE in Chinese prefecture-level cities was analyzed using CCD model, and the factors driving of CCD were identified using random forest. The results show that (1) Chinese city-level HQTD and DE show a rising trend from 2010 to 2019, and coastal areas have higher levels compared to central and western. (2) CCD is in bare balanced in most cities, and only Shanghai, is in superior balanced, and there is spatial heterogeneity in CCD distribution, with the central region being lower, and other regions show a trend of spreading from the core city to the surrounding areas, in addition, HQTD always lags behind DE. (3) Consumption level and tertiary industry support are the key drivers of CCD, and the driving effect is more obvious in the eastern, northern and southern, while for the southwestern and northwestern, it’s mainly dominated by the economic development level. Based on these conclusions, some policy implications are provided for the synergistic development of HQTD and DE.