Spatiotemporal Evolution Patterns and Driving Factors of Synergistic Development of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Industries: The Case Study of China

Synergistic development of the culture, sports, and tourism industries is an emerging trend in China, providing new formats for industrial evolution and fresh momentum for industrial upgrading. Therefore, building a robust framework to evaluate the synergistic development is relevant to China's economic and social development. This study used a coupling coordination model to calculate the coupling coordination degree of the three industries, for 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2017. Subsequently, it employed spatial autocorrelation techniques and GeoDetector to identify factors affecting the synergistic development from global and local perspectives before discussing the driving mechanisms. The results showed that (1) the synergistic development of the three industries was generally stable with a slight imbalance. (2) The development level varied across regions. The general spatial pattern was low in northeastern and western China, stable and average in the central region, and high in the eastern region. (3) The synergistic development has a prominent "proximity dependence" effect reflected by a notable spatial agglomeration feature and positive spatial autocorrelation trend and (4) twenty-one indicators of six driving factors (industrial pulling force, population supporting force, consumer purchasing power, transportation pushing force, resource attraction force, and economic driving force) affected the synergistic development.