Policy-Led Digital Transformation and Sustainability-Oriented High-Quality Development of the Tourism Economy: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from China’s National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones

Abstract

Tourism digitalization is widely viewed as a tool for sustainable local development, yet whether policy-led digital transformation generates measurable improvements in tourism-economy quality remains insufficiently tested. Treating the staggered establishment of China’s National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones as a quasi-natural experiment, a sustainability-oriented index of high-quality tourism-economy development was constructed using 2011–2019 provincial panel data, and the policy effect was estimated with difference-in-differences and propensity-score-matched difference-in-differences models. The results show that the pilot zones significantly improve the sustainability-oriented quality of the tourism economy, a finding supported by parallel-trends tests, placebo tests, and multiple robustness checks. Heterogeneity analyses indicate positive effects across regional contexts and relatively larger estimated responses in the innovation, green, and shared development dimensions. For pilot-zone type, a more precisely estimated positive effect is shown for regional pilot zones within the current sample. Mechanism-oriented analyses show empirical patterns consistent with improvements in digital infrastructure, digital industry development, and regional innovation capacity as plausible explanatory channels. Quasi-natural experimental evidence is thus provided on how digital policy supports sustainable tourism and local development, with implications for destination governance, tourism service quality, and responsible digital transformation.