Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Tourism–Urbanization–Technology–Ecological Environment on the Yunnan–Guizhou–Sichuan Region: An Uncoordinated Coupling Perspective

ABSTRACT

The tourism, urbanization, technology, and the ecological environment both promote and restrict each other. Coordinating the relationship between the four is of great significance to the realization of high-quality sustainable regional development. Taking the Yunnan–Guizhou–Sichuan region as an example, this paper constructs an uncoordinated coupling model for the tourism–urbanization–technology–ecological environment system. Using exploratory spatial analysis and geographic information systems, this paper reveals the temporal and spatial evolution law affecting the uncoordinated coupling relationship between tourism, urbanization, technology and the ecological environment in the Yunnan–Guizhou–Sichuan region from 2010 to 2020, before establishing a panel Tobit model that is used to explore the factors affecting the four systems. The research shows the following (1) The level of comprehensive development for tourism, urbanization, technology, and the ecological environment in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan has increased rapidly. Of all these, the tourism industry was the most affected by COVID-19 in 2020, while the level of urbanization, technology, and ecological environment developments in the three provinces has become similar over time. (2) Uncoordinated development between cities is a prominent problem;while the uncoordinated coupling spatial agglomeration in various regions is relatively stable, the proportion of cities with no significant agglomeration form amounts to more than 70%, with mostly low–low (L–L) and high–high (H–H) agglomeration types. (3) The degree to which uncoordinated coupling exists among the four systems in the Yunnan–Guizhou–Sichuan region is affected by many factors. Only eco-environmental pressure has a significant positive correlation with the degree of uncoordinated coupling, while the tourism scale, economic urbanization, eco-environmental response, and investment in technology have a significant negative correlation. These results provide a theoretical basis and practical references for strengthening the government’s macro-control and promoting collaborative regional development.