数字经济对旅游业碳排放效率的影响及门槛效应

Impact of the digital economy on the carbon efficiency of the tourism industry and its threshold effect

旅游业是信息密集型行业,与数字经济具有天然适配性。在碳达峰、碳中和目标要求下,提升旅游业碳排放效率问题日益紧迫,而数字经济的发展为旅游业碳排放效率提升提供了新契机。科学评价数字经济对区域旅游业碳排放效率的影响效应,有助于依托数字经济赋能旅游业节能减排,为旅游业绿色发展和生态文明建设提供有力支撑。该研究基于2011—2019年中国30个省份数据,利用地理加权回归和双重门槛模型分析数字经济对旅游业碳排放效率的影响。结果显示:①全国旅游业碳排放效率整体呈现“东南高,西北低”的空间分布格局。数字经济发展指数在研究期内呈现出显著上升趋势,且在空间上呈现出“东南高,西北低,中部均衡”的格局。②数字经济发展对旅游业碳排放效率的提升具有显著的正向促进作用。GWR模型结论表明,数字经济发展有利于旅游业实现低碳绿色转型。③数字经济对旅游业碳排放效率的提升存在双重门槛,且表现出倒“U”型非线性关系。当数字经济发展水平小于第一门槛值时,旅游发展显著正向促进旅游业碳排放效率;当该值处于第一和第二门槛值之间时,这种正向促进影响变小;当该值大于第二门槛值时,则为负向影响。因此,该研究建议:应加大数字经济与旅游业合理融合发展力度,培育与数字技术高度融合的旅游产品;鼓励数字经济强省对口帮扶弱省,缩小省际间旅游产业“数字鸿沟”;明确因地制宜差异化的发展战略,发挥数字经济在节能减排的最优效应;建设数字化旅游专业人才队伍,助力旅游业节能低碳高质量发展。

Tourism is an information-intensive industry with a natural fit with the digital economy.The development of the digital economy provides a new opportunity to address the issue of improving the carbon efficiency of the tourism industry,which has become increasingly urgent under the requirements of the carbon neutral policy.A scientific evaluation of the digital economy’s impact on the carbon efficiency of the regional tourism industry can help empower the industry to save energy and reduce emissions and provide strong support for its green development as well as the construction of ecological civilization.Based on data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019,this study analyzed the impact of the digital economy on the carbon emission efficiency of the tourism industry using geographically weighted regression and a double threshold model.The results showed that:①The overall spatial distribution pattern of the carbon emission efficiency of the national tourism industry was‘high in the southeast and low in the northwest.’In addition,the digital economy development index showed a significant upward trend during the study period and a spatial pattern of‘high in the southeast,low in the northwest,and balanced in the center.’②Digital economy development had a significant positive contribution to the improvement of the carbon emission efficiency of the tourism industry,and the GWR model findings indicated that digital economy development was conducive to the low-carbon green transformation of the industry.③There was a double threshold for the digital economy to improve the carbon efficiency of the tourism industry,demonstrating an‘inverted-U’nonlinear relationship.When the level of digital economy development was less than the first threshold,tourism development contributed significantly and positively to the carbon efficiency of the tourism industry;when this value was between the first and second thresholds,this positive contribution became smaller as the threshold increased;when this value was greater than the second threshold,the effect was negative.The study therefore recommends that:efforts should be made to develop a rational integration of the digital economy and the tourism industry,and to cultivate tourism products that are highly integrated with digital technology;provinces with strong digital economy should be encouraged to help weaker ones so as to narrow the‘digital divide’in the tourism industry between provinces;different development strategies should be applied according to local conditions so as to bring into play the optimal effect of the digital economy in energy conservation and emission reduction;and teams of talented professionals should be built to help the energy-saving and low-carbon high-quality development of the tourism industry.