Research on the Coupling Coordination and Influencing Factors Between Digital Economy and High-Quality Cultural Tourism Development in Shanxi Province Under the Background of Sustainable Development

In the context of the increasingly deepening concept of sustainable development, the coupling coordination between the digital economy (DE) and high-quality cultural tourism development (HQCTD) has become an important pathway for promoting the sustainable growth of Shanxi Province’s digital cultural tourism industry. Based on an in-depth analysis of the coupling relationship between the DE and HQCTD, and using panel data from 11 prefecture-level cities in Shanxi Province from 2014 to 2023, the entropy weight method and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model were employed to investigate the relationship between the two systems, while the obstacle degree model and geographic detector were applied to identify the internal and external obstacle factors. The results indicate that both the DE and HQCTD in Shanxi Province experienced slight fluctuations under the impact of COVID-19, and significant spatial differences were observed in the comprehensive development levels of the two systems. The CCD between the DE and the HQCTD in Shanxi Province remains at a good level, with the spatial distribution having evolved from “a single-center pattern” to a “southward extension of the center”. The core obstacle factor for the DE is public budget expenditure, while the main obstacle factor for HQCTD is the number of students enrolled in higher-education institutions. The primary external driving factors at the single-factor level are industrial structure, opening up, and transportation accessibility, while the dominant interaction factors are Z2∩Z4, Z4∩Z6, Z1∩Z6, and Z1∩Z4, respectively. Based on these findings, development strategies are proposed.