Strengthening the combined and coordinated growth of highway transportation and tourism industries is of pivotal significance for promoting regional progress and enhancing the vitality of the global economy and tourism sectors. Supported by the panel data of highway transport and the development of the travel sector in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), China, between 2011 and 2020, this study develops an evaluation indicator system. By employing the entropy method, Dagum Gini ratio, improved integrated collaboration degree model, kernel density estimation, and obstacle degree model, the internal variations, dynamic development, and obstacle factors of coordinated integration between the two industries are comprehensively analyzed. The results indicate that (1) the extent of integration and coordination has generally grown each year, with considerable variation across different locations in the development of highway transportation and tourism industries across prefectures and municipalities; (2) the overall Gini index of the integration and coordination degree shows a downward tendency, and variations between regions are the primary cause of spatial disparities; and (3) the dynamic evolution of integration and coordination generally presents an upward spatial pattern. Specifically, the primary challenges that affect the integrated coordination in Xinjiang include the total number of tourist arrivals, income from tourism (foreign currency earnings), the count of travel agencies, domestic tourism revenue, overall income generated by the travel sector system, and highway mileage and expressway mileage in the highway transportation system. This research framework provides an extremely useful reference for exploring the socioeconomic sustainability of border areas and comprehensively evaluating the level of integrated coordination between highway transportation and tourism industries.
Zhang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.