Coordinated Development between Urban Tourism Economy and Transport in the Pearl River Delta, China

By selecting the panel data from 2005 to 2014 of 9 cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in China, this paper respectively establishes the evaluation index system of tourism economy and transport. It also applies a synthetic evaluation model and coupling coordination model to estimate comprehensive indices of tourism economy and transport system and their coordinated relationships. The results show that: (1) during 2005–2014, the synthetic indices of tourism economy generally presented constantly upward tendency and the synthetic indices of transport represented wave-like raising trend in the PRD region; (2) during 2005–2014, the 9 cities in the PRD region gradually tended to have coordinated development between tourism economy and transport, and the central area of the PRD region developed faster than the flanks; (3) the correlations between the tourism economy and transport of the cities with abundant tourism resources, developed economy, and advanced transport facilities were more remarkable, and the coordination degrees were higher. Besides, macro-policies, mega-events, and locations also impacted on coordinated development between the tourism economy and transport in the PRD region.