On the Construction of Evaluation Indices and Measurement of New Quality Productivity: a Perspective of Regional Disparities

Using panel data from 29 provinces in China from 2012 to 2023, this research measures the development level of new-quality productivity in culture and tourism across China, and analyzes its spatial correlation, spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, and regional differences using Moran index, kernel density estimation, Markov chains as well as the Dagum Gini coefficient. The results show that the new-quality productivity level of culture and tourism at national and regional level both exhibit an overall upward trend in sample period. The inter-regional differences between the eastern-western and eastern-northeastern regions are the primary contributors to the imbalance in China's cultural-tourism productivity. Moreover, the development level in each region is constrained not only by its intrinsic conditions but also by the spillover effects from neighboring regions. Based on the above results, policymakers and relevant stakeholders should encourage those regions with lower new-quality productivity to leverage their local cultural-tourism characteristics, develop distinctive Ips, avoid homogeneous competition, and explore regional cooperation such as joint promotions and unified branding to narrow the developmental gaps in cultural-tourism productivity.