Impact of National Ecotourism Coordination Zone on Regional Economic Synergy

ABSTRACT Taking China's Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi National Ecotourism Cooperative Zone as an example, this study explores the role played by the integration of ecotourism into regional coordinated development policy and practice. By considering the establishment of the collaborative area as a quasi‐natural experiment, the double‐difference method is empirically applied to verify the impact of ecotourism integration policies on inter‐regional economic development, with special focus on the promotion of regional economic synergy. The results show that regional ecotourism integration can significantly promote the synergistic development of intercity economies. The heterogeneity test shows that during the construction of ecotourism collaborative areas, the central city can improve the synergy between a primate city and ordinary cities in terms of economic development. This paper illustrates the important role of ecotourism integration policy in the context of China's coordinated regional development and puts forward policy recommendations for the construction of cross‐regional tourism integration.