The Influencing Effect of Tourism Economy on Green Development Efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta

In the context of ecological priority and green development strategy, accelerating the upgrading of tourism structure and promoting the development of ecotourism is an important guarantee to achieve green and low-carbon economic growth and high-quality development. On the basis of constructing comprehensive evaluation indicators of tourism development (TD) and green development efficiency (GDE), this study analyzed the impulse response relationship between TD and GDE and the impact effect of TD on GDE in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2000–2018. Findings showed that: (1) During the study period, TD generally exhibited a W-shaped fluctuating upward trend and GDE showed a staggered evolution of upward and downward fluctuations, while both regional gaps of TD and GDE continued to decrease. (2) Most cities had made a leap from low to medium, high, and higher levels of tourism development, with tourism development levels decreasing along the Yangtze River basin to the north and south of the delta. The overall green development efficiency was relatively low, showing a spatial pattern of high value in the southern delta and low value in the northwest delta. (3) There was a one-way Granger causality of TD on GDE, and the impact of TD on GDE showed a significant positive cumulative effect. (4) TD exhibited a significant inverted U-shaped impact on GDE. The economic development level and government intervention had a significant positive impact on GDE. The proportion of secondary industry, energy consumption intensity, and foreign direct investment had a significant negative driving effect on GDE. While the impact of environmental regulation on GDE was insignificant positive. This study has great practical significance to alleviate the problems of urban resources and environment, and to realize a green economy and high-quality life.