Is digital economy the driving force for improving the tourism economic resilience? Evidence from China

To explore the innovation-driven of digital economy on tourism economic resilience in China, digital economy and tourism economic resilience are assessed respectively using Principal Component Analysis and the modified TOPSIS model based on panel data of 211 excellent tourism cities from 2000 to 2020. According to a comprehensive explanation of the influence mechanisms, a transmission mechanism model, a panel threshold model and a spatial econometric model are constructed to test the transmission mechanism and spatial spillover effect between digital economy and tourism economic resilience. The findings show that digital economy exerts a significant positive influence on tourism economic resilience through technological carriers, tourism economic growth and human capital, and these three variables also have significant threshold effects. Moreover, the results of spatial Durbin model shows that the digital economy has a significant contribution to local tourism economic resilience, but significantly hinders the tourism economic resilience of neighboring cities.