Digital Innovation and Ecotourism Development in Urban Agglomerations: Evidence From the Yangtze River Delta

The digital-intelligent era has opened new pathways for the high-quality and sustainable development of ecotourism in urban agglomerations. However, the mechanism through which digital-intelligent elements affect ecotourism efficiency remains unclear, thus hindering their full potential. This study developed a Network Slacks-Based Measure (NSBM) model to measure the ecotourism efficiency at the prefecture level and examined its spatiotemporal evolution in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) from 2011 to 2023. A spatial Durbin model was used to explore how digital-intelligent elements influence ecotourism efficiency. The results show the following: (1) The average ecotourism efficiency was 0.856, indicating room for improvement. The overall efficiency remained stable from 2011 to 2020, primarily because of the offsetting effects of a decline in ecosystem efficiency and an increase in tourism system efficiency. (2) The COVID-19 pandemic (2021–2023) caused a 10.08% annual drop in ecotourism efficiency, with Anhui Province experiencing the sharpest decline (15.88%), revealing weaker resilience. (3) Digital-intelligent elements exhibited significant spatial spillover effects. Moreover, digital-intelligent labor and objects of labor positively affected local and neighboring regions, while the spillovers of digital-intelligent means of labor and total factor productivity were more complex, showing local benefits but suppressing efficiency in nearby areas because of resource concentration and competition. This study provides empirical evidence and theoretical insights into how digital-intelligent elements reshape ecotourism in urban agglomerations, offering policy implications for promoting coordinated regional development.