Spatio-Temporal Patterns and Configuration Pathways of Tourism Economic Resilience in Nine Provinces Along the Yellow River

The resilience of the tourism economy plays a pivotal role in sustaining regional economic stability across the nine provinces along the Yellow River. This study examines the spatio-temporal evolution and configurational pathways of tourism economic resilience across the nine provinces along the Yellow River during 2012–2022 by applying the Standard Deviation Ellipse and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The results showed that: (1) From 2012 to 2019, the tourism economic resilience exhibited a steady upward tendency overall, with a slight fluctuation in the short term in 2020. (2) High and relatively high-level regions experienced a belt-like high-value zone, eventually extending to Sichuan Province, Henan Province, and Shandong Province. (3) The standard deviation ellipse exhibited a distribution pattern along the northeast-southwest axis, with its center of gravity situated in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, having shifted a total of 146.81 km. (4) Four driving pathways were identified: resistance-dominated, recovery-dominated with restructuring synergy, renewal-driven, and multi-resilience synergy-driven. Three barriers also appeared: renewal-constrained, restructuring-lagged, and overall resilience-deficient.