Abstract: From a spatial perspective, this paper studies the spatial effects and regional convergence of the tourism economy among 31 provinces in China from 1999 to 2012 through exploratory spatial data analysis. Results shows that firstly there are significant agglomerate effects and radiation effects in the tourism economy of these provinces, and the spatial effects are more obvious along with the development of tourism. Secondly, the tourism economy of a province can activate the improvement of its neighboring provinces’ by the spatial spillover effects. Thirdly, there is an absolute β convergence in China’s tourism economy. However, the speed of convergence declines a little after the spatial effects being taken into account. Obviously, the OLS regression model overvalues the speed. Based on the conclusion, in terms of the further development of China’s tourism economy, the following suggestions are given (1) Deepening tourism cooperation and implementing integrated development strategy; (2) Rationalizing resources allocation and cultivating regional growth pole; (3) Underlying and utilizing spatial effects among regions and promoting the development of tourism economy through demonstration effects and sharing mechanism.

Key words: China’s tourism economy, spatial effect, β convergence, spatial econometric model      [