Evaluation of the Development Level of Integration of Culture and Tourism in China’s Provinces under the Perspective of Spatial Interaction and Study of Influence Paths

4.2.1. Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Cultural and Tourism Spatial Interactions

1.

Spatial Interaction within Provinces

In terms of the number of types, for tourism–culture spatial interaction, the number of strong internal interaction types decreased from 16.67% in 2012 to 13.33% in 2021. The number of general internal interaction types declined rapidly from 36.67% in 2012 to 23.33% in 2015 before gradually rising to 36.37% in 2021. The number of weak internal interactions followed the same pattern as the previous two, from a rapid increase to a slow decline, and finally to 50.00% in 2021. For culture–tourism spatial interaction, the number of strong internal interaction types went through a process of “decreasing, increasing, and decreasing again” and then remained at 10.00% in 2021. After a slight decrease in 2018, the number of general internal interactions increased to 36.67% in 2021. The number of weak internal interactions decreased from 63.33% in 2012 to 53.33% in 2021. Overall, tourism–culture spatial interaction within the province weakened, while culture–tourism spatial interaction increased.

In terms of spatial distribution, whether it was tourism–culture spatial interaction or culture–tourism spatial interaction, the strong internal interaction types and general internal interaction types were mostly located in East China, Central China, South China, and Southwest China, while the weak internal interaction types were more centrally distributed in Northwest China, North China, and Northeast China. Specifically at the provincial scale, Beijing, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Sichuan were in the strong internal interaction type in different periods, indicating that these provinces have coordinated the development of cultural and tourism industry for a long period of time, and their internal culture–tourism industry elements flowed frequently to maintained strong tourism–culture (culture–tourism) spatial interaction. Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Neimenggu, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Chongqing, and Hainan were all in the weak internal interaction type for different periods, indicating that these provinces had fewer internal cultural and tourism industry elemental links, restricted spatial flows, and weak foundations for the integration of culture and tourism. Provinces with smaller land areas tended to have more frequent internal spatial interactions, while larger provinces tended to have the opposite pattern. For example, Shanghai and Xinjiang provinces are very different regarding land area. Compared to Xinjiang, Shanghai, which has a smaller land area, provides more conducive conditions for the spatial connection between cultural and tourism industries.

2.

Spatial Interactions between Provinces

In terms of the number of interactions, for tourism–culture spatial interactions, the number of strong external interactions increase from 292 in 2012 to 328 in 2018 and then decreased to 306 in 2021. For culture–tourism spatial interactions, the number of strong external interactions increased from 293 in 2012 to 313 in 2018, before it decreased to 301 in 2021. As a result, the intensity gap between interprovincial tourism–culture spatial interactions and culture–tourism spatial interactions has narrowed and network density has increased, both of which peaked in 2018. At the same time, the number of strong external interactions for tourism–culture spatial interaction was higher in comparison, indicating that the tourism industry was more clearly characterised by its outward orientation and was able to initiate spatial interactions more proactively. Specifically at the provincial scale, in tourism–culture spatial interaction, the tourism industries of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Beijing had more active spatial interactions with the cultural industries of other provinces, with an average number of 26, 23.5, and 21.25 strong external interactions per year, respectively, indicating that the development of tourism industries of these provinces was dominant across the country and was able to radiate and drive the development of the cultural industries of other regions. Among the culture–tourism spatial interactions, the cultural industries in Beijing, Henan, and Sichuan generated more spatial interactions with the tourism industries in other provinces, with an average number of 23.75, 21.5, and 20.25 strong external interactions per year, respectively, indicating that the cultural industries in these provinces were better developed, and they would take the initiative to establish links with the tourism industries in other regions to promote the integration of culture and tourism with each other. In addition, the culture–tourism spatial industry in Qinghai and Ningxia hardly took the initiative to interact spatially with other regions and played the role of receiver in both tourism–cultural spatial interaction and cultural–tourism spatial interaction, with the number of strong external interactions in both provinces during the study period being zero.

In terms of structural distribution, the centre of the network of tourism–culture spatial interaction and culture–tourism spatial interaction was located in the “North China Plain—Middle and Lower Yangtze River Plain” at the beginning of the study, with frequent spatial interactions in the central region, and the overall network structure showed a trend of spreading from the centre to the periphery. With the passage of the time series, the centre of the network gradually shifted to the southwest in the middle and late stages of the study. The spatial interaction frequency in the central region remained prominent. However, the interaction density within the domain decreased, and the overall network structure became fuller, tending to be homogenized and looser. This indicates that the spatial interaction of the cultural and tourism industry was gradually moving from single-core dominance to multiple-core concurrency. In addition, the cultural and tourism industry in the eastern–central region played a core guiding role. The cultural and tourism industry in the southwestern region also began to actively build links with other regions and synergistically promoted cross-boundary flow of cultural and tourism industry elements.

Collectively, there was a certain synergy between interprovincial spatial interactions and intraprovincial spatial interactions, with strong external spatial interactions tending to be more centred around provinces with strong internal interactions. When the internal interaction intensity increased in a province, the external interaction intensity would also increase accordingly, and the two would promote each other, forming a three-dimensional and comprehensive spatial interaction structure of cultural and tourism industry and promoting the integration of culture and tourism. In addition, the areas under the jurisdiction of the northwestern and northeastern zones of China have long been in a state of weak internal interaction, with little intraprovincial exchange of cultural and tourism industry, and only a few strong internal interactions, failing to connect with the dense interaction network in the eastern–central part of the country, and ultimately becoming “desert zones” of interaction of cultural and tourism industry.

4.2.2. Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Integration of Culture and Tourism

In 2012, the degree of integration of culture and tourism in China was 0.2095, and the types of integration of culture and tourism were dominated by low and medium–low integration types, with the number of the two accounting for as much as 76.67% in total. This observation indicates that during this period, China’s integration of culture and tourism was in its initial development stage, with most provinces experiencing a relatively low level of development in this integration. Only a few of the strong traditional economic provinces achieved relatively good results in the integration of culture and tourism. Among them, in the Eastern China region, the integration of culture and tourism was relatively advanced, with medium, medium–high, and high levels of integration all converging in this area. This led to a spatial pattern where integration radiated outward from Eastern China, diminishing as it spread.

In 2015, the degree of integration of culture and tourism in China increased significantly to 0.3713. The number of provinces belonging to medium, medium–high, and high integration increased, with the three accounting for 16.67%, 20.00%, and 23.33%, respectively, and the total accounting for 60.00%. This indicates that the integration of culture and tourism in China entered a high-speed development stage in this period, and the development level of integration of culture and tourism in all provinces increased. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution characteristics of integration of culture and tourism types in this period showed new changes, and the degree of spatial differentiation deepened. The medium, medium–high, and high integration types began changing from sporadic to concentrated distribution. In contrast, the low and medium–low integration types were gradually divided from continuous to sporadic.

In 2018, the degree of integration of culture and tourism in China further increased, reaching a peak of 0.4621, with the number of provinces with medium–high integration and high–high integration types both increasing to 30.00% and the number of provinces with low integration types decreasing to a minimum of 6.67% in all periods. This indicates that China’s integration of culture and tourism stepped into a stage of comprehensive development in this period, and the development level of integration of culture and tourism in the vast majority of provinces increased again, with only a very small number of provinces yet to form a breakthrough in the development of integration of culture and tourism. In terms of spatial distribution, the medium–low integration, medium–high integration, and high integration types formed a very clear geographical division. The high integration type was mainly distributed in the areas under the jurisdiction of the North China Plain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain. The medium–high integration type was concentrated in the areas south of the Yangtze River. The medium–low integration type was distributed in the northern border areas.

The degree of integration of culture and tourism in China showed a downward trend in 2021, dropping to 0.2262, down as much as 51.06% compared with 2018. The number of provinces belonging to the low and medium–low integration increased significantly, accounting for 43.33% and 16.67%, respectively. The number of provinces belonging to the medium–high and high integration types decreased to 6.67% and 10.00%, respectively. This suggests that the development of the integration of culture and tourism in China faced great crises and challenges during this period, and the integration of culture and tourism in the majority of provinces was in a declining trend, with the decline ranging from 0.0559 to 0.7715. The COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the decline in the integration of culture and tourism during this period. The uncertainty of the pandemic and control measures imposed significant constraints on the connection between the cultural and tourism industries.

At the provincial scale, the integration of culture and tourism in most provinces from 2012 to 2021 underwent a process of “continuous increase—rapid decrease”. Among them, the cultural and tourism industry in Jiangsu continuously maintained a high level of integration of culture and tourism at different times. Even with the impact of the New Crown epidemic, Jiangsu’s integration of culture and tourism in 2021 remained at 0.6824, ranking first in the country. Although Beijing’s integration of culture and tourism was at a high level of integration development in the first and middle periods, it did not grown much and was greatly affected by the New Crown epidemic, and downgraded to a medium integration type in 2021, with a degree of integration of culture and tourism of only 0.3364 in that year, a decrease of about 69.64% from 2018. The integration of culture and tourism in Sichuan rose from the medium–low integration type in the early stage to the medium–high integration type and finally continued to stabilise at the high integration type in the middle and late stages. This indicates that the cultural and tourism industry in Sichuan was in a state of compatible and coordinated development for a long time, and the momentum of integration of culture and tourism was relatively good.

Comprehensively, the integration of culture and tourism development in China had obvious spatiotemporal differentiation laws, which were closely related to the spatial interaction of culture and tourism. Specifically, the network centres of spatial interaction of culture and tourism basically coincided with the spatial distribution of the high integration of culture and tourism types, which were located within the jurisdiction of the North China Plain and the Middle and Lower Yangtze River Plains. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution pattern of spatial interaction of culture and tourism, which was “dense in the south-east and sparse in the north-west”, was also similar to the spatial differentiation of the development level of integration of culture and tourism, which was “high in the south-east and low in the north-west”. Moreover, the tendency of the movement of the centre of the spatial interaction network of culture and tourism and the degree of sparseness of the network structure were basically consistent with the tendency of the specific value and type of integration of culture and tourism to shift in time and space.