Temporal and spatial evolution of the coupling and coordination between tourism and rural development: A case study of 33 counties in southern Xinjiang

Tourism plays an important role in promoting rural transformation and development globally. Based on the logical relationship between tourism and rural development, this study constructs a tourism and rural development index using two models. The projection pursuit model is used to analyse the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the level of tourism and rural development, while the coupling coordination degree model measures the relationship in the counties of four southern Xinjiang prefectures from 2010 to 2019. A panel regression model is used to analyse the influencing factors of the coupling coordination relationship between them. The results show the following: (1) The level of tourism and rural development fluctuates and increases in time, and both demonstrate high-level agglomeration in some counties (cities) in the northeast and southwest of the four prefectures, spatially. (2) During the study period, the level of tourism and rural development changed from ‘high coupling and serious imbalance’ to ‘high coupling and barely coordinated’. Spatially, the degree of coupling is similar to the high-value region of the coupling coordination degree. Over time, the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling degree decreases and the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling coordination degree increases. (3) The main influencing factors for the coordinated development of tourism and rural areas are tourism resource endowment, tourist density index, rural employees, rural per capita disposable income, and tourism contribution rate.