Abstract: High-speed railway is an important carrier for travel, which has time and space compression effect. Studying the impact of the opening of high-speed railway on the tourism economy of the cities along the line is beneficial both to adjusting the strategic layout of high-speed railway tourism economic development and promoting the development of tourism economy in Sichuan Province. This paper selects the relevant data before and after the opening of Nanjing-Chengdu, Lanzhou-Chongqing, and Xi’an-Chengdu High-speed Railways, and takes Chengdu, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing, Nanjing, Lanzhou and Xi 'an as research objects.Based on the Arc GIS Platform, this paper quantitatively analyzes the changes of accessibility, hourly economic circle and tourism economic ties between node cities before and after the opening of the high-speed railway by using accessibility model and modified gravity model. The results show that: 1) the accessibility level of the cities along the line has been improved, resulting in a time-space compression effect, and expanding greatly the one-hour economic circle in Chengdu; 2) the tourism economic ties between the cities have been improved, and the tourism economic development of surrounding cities have been driven by the core cities; 3) the tourism economic ties of the cities along the line have a higher degree of subordination than that of the non-adjacent cities.
Keywords: tourism economic relations;high-speed railway;hourly economic circle;accessibility;Sichuan Province
The Chinese version appeared in West Forum on Economy and Management, 2021(03).