The impact and mechanism of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration—based on data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2023

The digital economy deeply penetrates the process of agriculture and tourism integration through core resources such as digital network information, traffic, technology, and platforms, optimizes resource allocation and operation models, and drives the realization of efficient collaboration and high-quality development in agriculture and tourism integration. Based on the analysis of the mechanism of the impact of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration, using panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2023 as samples, the ordinary panel regression model, the mediation effect model and the threshold effect model were conducted to verify the intrinsic relationship between the digital economy and the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration. Results show that the digital economy has a significant promoting effect on the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration. In regions with different agricultural resource bases and cultural resource endowments, the enabling effect of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration varies, and this effect is stronger in regions with high agricultural resource bases and high cultural resource endowments. The digital economy promotes the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration through reducing operational costs, optimizing industrial structure, and improving public services. Through further analysis, it is found that the impact of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration has a dual threshold effect with itself, that is, as the level of the digital economy increases, its positive impact on the high-quality development of agriculture and tourism integration becomes significant from insignificant, and gradually weakens after crossing the second threshold value.