Analysis on the Coordination Between Tourism Activities and Tourism Supporting Facilities: A Case Study in China

China’s tourism industry is an important part of the country’s economic development. However, an uncoordinated situation has emerged between the intensity of tourism activities and the supply of tourism supporting facilities in China. Therefore, this paper establishes the tourism activity (TA) and tourism supporting facilities (TSF) evaluation index systems by selecting panel data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2008–2017. The entropy weighting method and coupled coordination model were applied to evaluate the integrated indicators of TA and TSF systems and their coordination relationship. The results show that: (1) The coupling coordination degree (CCD) of most provinces in China is on the verge of maladjustment and much effort is needed for improvement. (2) Coordination between TA and TSF are classified into four types, i.e. rising, stable, volatile, and falling. (3) CCD is higher in coastal areas while relatively lower in the northwest, and the CCD gap from 2008 to 2017 was gradually and gently narrowing. (4) The influence factors on CCD are mainly tourist scale and tourist economic activity intensity in the TA system and transportation in the TSF system. Finally, this paper proposes three policy recommendations, including increase the financial investment in tourism infrastructure facilities, strengthen the interconnection of tourism transportation facilities, and innovate a new model of coupling development.