Tourism Digitalization and Urban–Rural Income Inequality in China: Evidence from Provincial Panel Data

Urban–rural income inequality remains a major impediment to inclusive and sustainable development in China. Meanwhile, digital transformation in the tourism industry has accelerated, yet quantitative evidence on its distributional effects is still limited. Using balanced panel data for 30 Chinese provinces from 2013 to 2022, this study constructs a multidimensional tourism digitalization index based on six dimensions and 35 indicators, with weights determined by the entropy method. Urban–rural income inequality is measured by the Theil index. Employing a two-way fixed-effects model, we find that tourism digitalization significantly reduces the urban–rural income gap. Mediation analyses further indicate that tourism digitalization narrows inequality by promoting industrial structure upgrading and enhancing regional innovation capacity. Heterogeneity tests reveal pronounced regional differences: the inequality-reducing effect is strongest in central China, followed by western China, and is weakest in eastern China. A series of robustness checks—using alternative sample periods and replacing the dependent variable with the urban–rural disposable income ratio—support the baseline findings. These results suggest that advancing tourism digitalization can serve as an effective pathway toward more inclusive growth, especially in less-developed regions, and highlight the importance of complementary policies that strengthen digital infrastructure, innovation capability, and structural upgrading.