An empirical analysis of tourism eco-efficiency in ecological protection priority areas based on the DPSIR-SBM model: A case study of the Yellow River Basin, China

Highlights

• Exploring the TE assessment method based on the human-land relationship theory.

• The DPSIR-SBM model was first combined with a convergence model to assess TE.

• There is a long-term steady-state growth path for TE in YRB.

• There is variability in the socioeconomic impact on TE convergence.

Abstract

The Yellow River Basin is a key area for ecological protection and high-quality economic development in China. However, with the continued development of urbanization and industrial transformation, tourism poses a serious threat to the ecological environment. Based on the panel data of eight provinces in the Yellow River Basin, a framework of the drivers, pressures, state, impact, and response (DPSIR) model of intervention was constructed, and the tourism eco-efficiency values in the Yellow River Basin were measured using the superefficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) model. The convergence characteristics and driving factors of tourism eco-efficiency were analysed by combining the σ convergence and β convergence models. The results demonstrated that the overall tourism eco-efficiency of the Yellow River Basin ha exhibited a fluctuating upwards trend over time, with an increase of 25.4%, as well as significant differences in the stage fluctuations of the three subbasins. In the spatial dimension, tourism eco-efficiency exhibits a trend of “high in the head and low in the middle,” with the middle reaches having significantly lower tourism eco-efficiency than the upper and lower reaches. The convergence study revealed unstable stochastic convergence and σ convergence in the overall basin and three subbasins, while there is absolute β convergence with a catch-up effect in the overall basin and upstream and midstream regions. Additionally, conditional β convergence is found in the overall basin and the three subbasins. The initial tourism eco-efficiency value, economic development strength, ecological and environmental pressure, scientific and technological development, government input, and greening coverage level are all found to influence the convergence of the overall basin and the three subbasins to different degrees. The findings of this work provide scientific support and effective policy recommendations for ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin.

Introduction

At the International Conference on Sustainable Development in 1990, the Tourism Action Committee published the “Strategy for Action on Sustainable Tourism Development,” which clearly defined “sustainable tourism” and indicated its objectives and main framework. Sustainable tourism development is characterized by an emphasis on the environmental impacts of tourism development in both the short and long term. With the rapid development of global tourism, the inherent attributes of environmental dependence and resource consumption exacerbate the relationship between tourism and the ecological environment (Peng et al., 2017a). The ecological security of tourism destinations is also threatened (Qiu et al., 2017). To solve the problem of regional tourism development, it is crucial to start from the theory of the human-earth relationship, reveal the endowment state of each element of the regional system, the mechanisms of interactions, and evolutionary trends, accurately grasp the operation state of the human-earth relationship from the perspective of the carrying capacity of tourism natural resources and the pressure of human activities, and seek a model of the optimal regulation of regional tourism activities and the ecological environment (Liu et al., 2017). In the context of the Chinese government's promotion of tourism as the focus of ecological civilization construction, dealing with the relationship between tourism activities and the ecological environment has become a consensus among all sectors of society and a long-term goal to achieve the green and sustainable development of the regional economy.

The Yellow River basin (YRB) is an important ecological protection and economic development area in China. The differences between the economic and ecological development of the upstream and downstream areas of the YRB are substantial. Additionally, the ecological environment is fragile, and the impact of tourism on the ecological environment is particularly significant; the long-term uncontrolled development of tourism has led to the intensification of conflicts between people and land (Xia and Guo, 2021; Shi and Wang, 2021). For example, the excessive construction of tourism infrastructure has led to inefficient land use, an increased concentration of tourist traffic has led to increased noise and exhaust emissions, and local residents have established fragile tourism activity areas, leading to a biological crisis caused by the reduction of habitats for biological species (Yang et al., 2021; Sheng and Zhou, 2021). Currently, research on tourism and the ecological environment in the YRB mainly includes the coupling of the tourism economy, the ecological environment, and high-quality tourism development (Chen et al., 2020; Li et al., 2021). Wang (Wang and Blasco, 2022) believed that there are stages of tourism development and ecological environment in each province and region of the YRB, as well as large differences in uneven spatial development; he posited that reducing regional differences should be the focus of future development in the YRB. Yu (Yu and Liu, 2021) established and evaluated an index system of tourism quality development and found that the regional differences in the development of tourism and the ecological environment have affected the sustainability of local tourism; he posited that the main paths by which to reduce the regional differences should be explored. In addition, Wang (Wang and Li, 2020) pointed out that a green and sustainable development model should be adopted for the tourism ecology of the YRB and recognized the presence of both long- and short-term convergence trends in tourism ecology. Previous studies have fully explained the relationship between tourism and the environment in the YRB, but the research approach has largely been from the perspective of quantitative summation and less from the perspective of efficiency; the overall coordination of the human-land relationship in the tourism ecosystem of the basin unit has been ignored.

Tourism eco-efficiency (TE) is derived from eco-efficiency, and the two have similarities in both principles and attributes (Peng et al., 2017a). TE is essentially the rational coordination of the relationship between human tourism activities and the environment and can be assessed from the perspective of the “quality” of ecological and environmental problems caused by tourism (Yao and Chen, 2015; Guo et al., 2021). Currently, studies on TE mainly include conceptual analyses (Chen et al., 2020), measurement methods (Li et al., 2021), and applications to tourism destinations (Liu et al., 2017). The assessment methods mainly include the single ratio method (Zhang et al., 2017), the ecological footprint method (Zheng and Yang, 2020), and data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA is based on a linear programming approach; the observed values and effective frontier distances of each decision unit are calculated via the relative evaluation of multiple input–output indicators among the measured units. DEA can be conditionally filtered according to specific needs and is widely used for relative efficiency evaluation because of its advantages for multiple input–output measurements (Wang and Yu, 2020). As an important research direction, the application of TE has been studied by various researchers from the perspective of administrative divisions, such as nations (Qiu et al., 2017), provinces (Zheng and Yang, 2020), urban clusters (Ma et al., 2021), and counties (Li et al., 2021). A few researchers have suggested that the academic vision should be extended from the provincial level to the watershed level to overcome the economic limits of administrative districts and conduct research at the watershed scale (Liu et al., 2020). However, few existing studies have examined watershed units where human-land relations are in intense conflict, and the causal relationships between elements within tourism ecosystems are not well understood.

TE is an important tool with which to measure the harmonious development of human tourism activities and environmental protection, as well as the sustainable development of complex “nature-economy-society” systems of different types and scales. This requires the consideration of the influences of various factors, such as regional economic development, tourism infrastructure, pollution emissions, and eco-environmental protection policies (Jiang, 2013). The drivers, pressures, state, impact, and response (DPSIR) proposed by the European Environment Agency in 1993 has the advantage of the systematic and comprehensive detection of the continuous feedback mechanisms among indicators and allows for the simulation of causal relationships among the five subsystems to clarify the structure and function of the system (Gari et al., 2015). Essentially, the DPSIR model can examine the relationship between people and the environment from a systemic perspective (Chen et al., 2022; Peng et al., 2017b). The DPSIR model has been applied to tourism research because of its outstanding advantages. For example, Ruan (Ruan et al., 2019) used the DPSIR model to assess tourism ecological security in the Yangtze River Delta, China, and constructed driving mechanisms to analyse the influencing factors. However, existing studies have not analysed the causal relationships between the components of tourism ecosystems. Studies from the perspective of human-earth relationships are even rarer, and there are even fewer studies on the scope and breadth of tourism ecosystems involving various elements. The DPSIR model provides advantages for the analysis and management of TE, which not only represents the relationship between humans and the environment but also allows for the analysis of tourism ecosystems involving multiple elements of causal relationships (Boori et al., 2022). In addition, some researchers have realized that the scope and usefulness of the DPSIR model will be improved if it is combined with other models (Lowe et al., 2014). In the authors' previous work, DEA was introduced to study the input–output efficiency of TE, and DEA models have been used for the study of green development efficiency (Suka et al., 2021), carbon emission efficiency (Huang et al., 2019), and eco-efficiency (Cui et al., 2021). However, previous studies have mostly used nonparametric slack-based measure (SBM) models to measure efficiency, which ignores the efficiency differences among effective decision units and leads to biased results. Superefficiency SBM models can address the limitations of these previous studies. In the present work, a framework was established for the evaluation of the DPSIR model for a systematic and complete analysis of TE in the YRB, and the causal effects between tourism and the environment are linked with the SBM model (Zhang and Wang, 2022). The analysis of TE based on DPSIR subsystems can accurately reveal the dynamic synergistic relationships between them and lead to the formulation of reasonable and effective management measures for the ecological conservation and development of the YRB.

To achieve the harmonious development of humans and nature, the YRB should consider the sustainability of the tourism economy and the ecological environment. TE is an important topic that should be considered to achieve regional sustainable development. Previous studies on TE mainly focused on eco-efficiency assessment and ignored the convergence of TE and the key factors affecting convergence. Some researchers have realized that there exist stages and spatial imbalances in the tourism ecology of the YRB (Wang and Blasco, 2022; Chen et al., 2020), but there exists a gap in the literature on the study of convergence. Considering that the YRB spans a large region and the differences in tourism resource development intensity, natural resource carrying capacity, and social culture in different regions, there remains uncertainty regarding whether TE in different regions declines over time. The determination of the development trend of TE can provide a comprehensive understanding of whether the current TE in the YRB is reasonable.

The first novelty of this study is that although the coupling of tourism, the ecological environment, and high-quality development has received extensive attention, most previous studies have only started from quantitative summation. The existing studies on TE, especially in the YRB, remain inadequate, despite the undoubted importance of TE in the context of ecological protection and high-quality development. Second, the causal relationships among the components of tourism ecosystems in the basin units are analysed from the perspective of human-earth relationship theory. Additionally, the structure and function of tourism ecosystems are comprehensively analysed, which has not been done in previous studies. Third, there exists a gap in the literature on TE convergence. Under the key challenge of expanding the unevenness of spatiotemporal differences in tourism ecology in the YRB, a study on TE convergence in the YRB can provide an effective theoretical basis, new ideas, and new methods for ecological protection and high-quality development in the YRB. Finally, the influencing factors that affect the convergence of TE in the YRB are discussed, which compensates for the shortcomings of previous studies on the analysis of the influencing factors of convergence.

The specific objectives of this study were to construct the DPSIR model around tourism activities and the ecological environment based on the theory of the human-land relationship and to study the assessment methods of TE in different stages of the YRB in combination with the SBM model. The spatiotemporal heterogeneity of TE in the upper, middle, and lower basins and in the YRB as a whole was then analysed. The DPSIR-SBM model was combined with the convergence model to explore the dynamic evolutionary trend of TE in the YRB and the influencing factors and implementation paths by which to decrease regional differences.