The Catalytic Role of Culture–Tourism Integration in County-Level Economic Growth

Abstract

Against the backdrop of high-quality development and urban–rural integration, culture–tourism integration has become a key lever for activating county-level factors of production, expanding domestic demand, and advancing common prosperity. This study constructs an analytical framework of “factor integration–industrial coordination–spillover diffusion,” employs county-level panel data and spatial econometric methods, measures the coupling coordination degree between culture and tourism (ILCT), and uses GDP per capita to represent economic growth so as to identify both the direct and spatial spillover effects of culture–tourism integration on growth. The results indicate: (1) culture–tourism integration significantly promotes county-level economic growth, mainly through the transmission chain of “cultural-content premium → product differentiation → deepened industrial linkages → improvements in employment and income”; (2) there are pronounced positive spatial spillovers, whereby adjacent counties share growth dividends via visitor interchange, itinerary linkages, and co-branding; (3) the driving effect displays clear regional gradients, with digitalization and transport accessibility exerting positive moderating effects; (4) when tourism dependence becomes excessive, marginal returns exhibit nonlinear diminishing patterns and potential structural risks. Accordingly, the paper recommends driving high-quality supply with cultural IP, building integrated “digital–transport” factor platforms, improving industrial finance and talent support, advancing cross-county coordination and brand co-construction, and using threshold monitoring together with modern governance to curb negative externalities. These findings provide empirical evidence and practical guidance for optimizing pathways and designing policies for county-level culture–tourism integration.