How Does Digitalization Empower Tourism Development? Evidence from Digital Governance and Financial Accessibility

With the continued digital transformation of the service sector, the digital economy has become an important force reshaping tourism development. Based on balanced provincial panel data from China for the period 2011–2024, this study examines the impact of digital economy development on tourism development and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that the digital economy significantly increases tourism revenue, expands tourist arrivals, and improves high-quality tourism development. Mechanism tests indicate that the digital economy promotes tourism development by enhancing government digital governance capacity and improving financial accessibility. Further analysis shows that tourism development plays a transmission role in the process through which the digital economy promotes consumption structure upgrading. By measuring tourism development from the dimensions of tourism revenue, tourist arrivals, and high-quality tourism development, and by integrating government digital governance, financial accessibility, and consumption structure upgrading into a unified framework, this study provides empirical evidence for understanding how the digital economy empowers high-quality tourism development.