Research on the Construction of a Smart Tourism Service System in the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone under the Digital Economy Context

Abstract

With the rapid advancement of digital technologies, the digital economy has become a core driver of regional transformation and high-quality development. As a major growth pole in western China, the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone is endowed with abundant tourism resources but faces persistent challenges such as fragmented assets and low service efficiency. Against the backdrop of deep integration between the digital economy and the cultural–tourism industry, building a smart tourism service system is not only a key pathway to enhancing regional competitiveness, but also an important lever for promoting green and low-carbon transition and advancing coordinated urban–rural development. A pressing question lies in how digital technologies and new productive forces can be harnessed to integrate fragmented resources, optimize the all-region tourism service chain, and innovate benefit-sharing mechanisms. Drawing on digital economy theory, smart tourism ecosystem theory, and collaborative governance theory, and taking into account the development realities and digital transformation needs of the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone, this study employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to construct an evaluation index system for high-quality smart tourism services. The findings offer both a theoretical paradigm and a decision-making reference for building regional smart tourism systems in the digital economy era, supporting the Southern Sichuan Economic Zone in shaping a new hub for smart cultural tourism.