The impact and spatial spillover effect of digital economy on tourism economy: based on provincial panel data

Digital economy has great potential to become a new driving force for tourism economic growth. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces and regions in China from 2011 to 2019 and the measurement of the development level of digital economy and tourism economy, this paper analyzes the dynamic evolution of the two, and explores the impact of digital economy development on tourism economy and spatial spillover effect with the help of benchmark regression model and spatial Dubin model. The conclusions are as follows: (1) There is a big gap between the development level of digital economy and tourism economy in each province, but the overall situation is steadily improving; In terms of regional heterogeneity, the level of digital economy gradually transited from the "central collapse" to the spatial pattern of gradual decline "from east to west", while the tourism economy gradually transited from the regional characteristics of "east-middle-west gradual decline" to "central collapse". (2) Digital economy can significantly enhance tourism economic growth. After considering the control variables, every 1% increase in the development level of digital economy can effectively elevate the growth of tourism economy by 0.6703%, and this conclusion remains valid after the robustness test. (3) From the perspective of space, the development of digital economy has a significantly positive spillover effect on neighboring provinces; However, from the perspective of different regions, only the digital economy in the eastern and central regions can release significant positive effects and spatial spillover effects, while those in the western regions are not significant.