The evolution patterns of tourism integration driven by regional tourism‐economic linkages—Taking Poyang Lake region, China, as an example

Tourism integration is a trend in regional tourism economic development and cultural integration. Tourism economic linkages greatly influence regional tourism integration, becoming progressively obvious with the strength of linkages. However, their influence on regions with rich tourism resources and underdeveloped economies are understudied. This article takes the national tourism resources above 3A level in the Poyang Lake region, Jiangxi Province, as the research object, analysing the evolution of regional tourism economic linkages and the development process of tourism integration in the past 17 years by constructing a new gravity model of regional tourism economic linkages and research methods of transportation network accessibility. The results show that the evolution of regional tourism economic linkages and the accessibility of transportation networks significantly impact regional tourism economies and tourism integration evolution. The evolution process of regional tourism development had different stage models; four theoretical models of regional tourism integration evolution were extracted: point‐core model, point‐axis corridor model, multi‐centre ring‐axis model, and network integration model. The construction of the new regional tourism economic linkages model and the proposal of the evolutionary model for tourism integration provide references for study and for formulating the sustainable development of regional tourism integration locally and abroad.