The green and healthy development of tourism requires the coordinated promotion of resource conservation and ecological protection in industrial operations. Heilongjiang Province, as a core region for ice-snow tourism and a region rich in diverse cultural resources in China, faces critical challenges in the low-carbon transition of its ice-snow tourism sector and the digital empowerment of its cultural tourism sector, both of which are of great significance for regional sustainable development. This study aims to systematically measure the efficiency evolution patterns of green technology application and sustainable operations in these two sectors from 2014 to 2024, and to identify their differentiated driving mechanisms. Using the super-efficiency SBM model, exploratory spatiotemporal data analysis (ESTDA), kernel density estimation, and panel quantile regression, this study measures and analyzes a constructed green healthy development efficiency (GHDE) indicator system. The findings reveal that the GHDE of ice-snow tourism exhibits a fluctuating upward trend with significant spatial agglomeration, while the GHDE of cultural tourism shows steady growth driven by digital penetration. The driving mechanisms of the two sectors are markedly heterogeneous: technological input is more sensitive in the ice-snow tourism sector, whereas consumption upgrading has a stronger impact on the cultural tourism sector. These results provide scientific evidence for governments to formulate “ice-snow + culture” green integrated development strategies, guide enterprises to strategically deploy low-carbon facilities, and implement differentiated green subsidy policies, thereby helping Heilongjiang Province achieve dual improvements in economic and social benefits while ensuring ecological protection.
Bai et al. (Fri,) studied this question.