Empirical analysis reveals U-shaped dynamics in tourism's impact on industrialization, suggesting coordinated land use can boost economic sustainability.
The coordinated development of tourism and industrialization is essential for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in the tourism sector, as well as for ensuring long-term regional economic sustainability. This study is motivated by the observation that land is a key factor influencing the coordination between tourism and industrialization, yet the specific role of land use remains underexplored. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the nonlinear relationship and underlying mechanisms through which tourism development impacts industrialization, with a particular focus on land transfers. To achieve this, the study employs an empirical approach using multi-source data—including data on China’s A-level scenic areas and land transfers—combined with an econometric method. The results indicate a U-shaped relationship between both the quantity and quality of tourism resources and the growth of industrial enterprises, as well as an inverted U-shaped relationship between the concentration of tourism resources and industrial development. The research finds that tourism development influences industrialization through two primary land-related mechanisms: the factor competition effect and the resource conservation effect. This study also investigates the potential for synergistic development between the tourism and industrial sectors, providing valuable insights for the sustainable economic advancement of land-based tourism and industrialization.
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Song et al. (2025) studied this question.