Can Tourism Economy Enhance the Level of Urban Green Development? A Study Based on Spatial Effects and Threshold Characteristics

As a pivotal element within the modern service industry, tourism possesses the capacity to reconfigure regional economic dynamics, alter resource flow patterns, and notably influence urban green development. By establishing an evaluation index system for urban green development across 60 prefecture-level cities within the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2021, this study employs the spatial Durbin model to delve into the nonlinear relationship between the tourism economy and urban green development. Furthermore, it investigates the heterogeneous impact of the tourism economy on green development across varying levels of urbanization. This study reveals several key findings: (1) Both tourism economy and urban green development exhibit significant spatial clustering, with tourism economy showing “midstream>downstream>upstream” and urban green development showing “downstream>midstream>upstream”. (2) The tourism economy exerts a non-linear positive influence on the green development of cities, characterized by a non-linear inverted “S” shape in its direct impact and a nonlinear “S” shape in its indirect impact. (3) As urbanization rate level escalate, the positive influence of the tourism economy on urban green development follows a non-linear trajectory, initially declining before ascending. Specifically, when the urbanization rate level is below the first threshold value, the tourism economy notably promotes urban green development. However, between the first and second threshold values, this positive impact diminishes, only to rebound beyond the second threshold value.