Empowering Tourism Economic Growth through Integration of Agriculture, Cultural and Tourism: Impact Effects and Mechanisms

Objective/Meaning The integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism is a key pathway for promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, as well as economic growth. Exploring the impact of this integration on the tourism economy aims to provide insights for better fostering high-quality development in China’s tourism sector.

Methods/Procedures Using provincial panel data from 2010 to 2023, this study employs two-way fixed-effects models, mediation models, and moderation models to analyze the impact and mechanisms of the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism on tourism economic growth.

Results/Conclusions The results indicate that: (1) the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism has a significant positive impact on tourism economic growth; this conclusion remains valid even after addressing endogeneity issues and conducting multiple robustness tests; (2) the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism promotes tourism economic growth by accelerating technological innovation in the tourism sector; (3) The upgrading of industrial structure positively moderates the effect of the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism on tourism economic growth, whereas the moderating effect of industrial rationalization is not significant; (4) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism has a more pronounced promotional effect on tourism economic growth in western provinces, provinces with low transportation density, and provinces with low levels of agricultural industrialization.