The large increase in the number of tourists brings challenges to the tourist carrying capacity of tourist destinations. By constructing a tourism carrying capacity indicator system and a coupling coordination model, we calculate and compare the development of tourism carrying capacity and the coupling coordination between all first-class indicators of tourism carrying capacity for provinces and cities in China. We find that the tourism carrying capacity and the coupling coordination between all first-class indicators of tourism carrying capacity for provinces and cities in China both showed an upward trend from 2008 to 2017, but the development was not balanced. In coastal provinces, their development level was high although lately showing a downward trend. In the provinces of the northwest China, their development level is low, and their development speed is relatively slow. The provinces and cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the southwest China recorded the fastest growth rate. In addition, we found that the development of tourism carrying capacity is closely related to coupling coordination between all first-class indicators of tourism carrying capacity.

The rapid development of the high-speed railway (HSR) network has significantly improved the tourism traffic conditions, which has led to a large increase in the number of tourists. This has posed a new challenge for the tourism carrying capacity (TCC) of tourist attractions along the HSR. The purpose of this paper is to measure the development level of TCC and HSR network, and to study the coupling and coordinated development relationship between TCC and HSR network. The development level of TCC and HSR network is calculated respectively. The coupling coordination model is used to study the coupling and coordinated relationship of provincial TCC and HSR network. The results show that this coupling coordination relationship has an overall upward trend. However, the degree of development of the TCC in different provinces and cities is uneven, and the development advantages and disadvantages of the TCC are also different. The development level of the HSR network in most provinces and cities in China is lower than the level of TCC, which indicates that further increasing the construction of the HSR network will have a better marginal effect for the development of the tourism industry in China. Therefore, it is extremely important for China's provinces and cities, especially in key tourism areas, to promote the coordinated development of the HSR network capacity and TCC. At the same time, in the areas where the development level of HSR network is higher than the level of TCC, measures should be taken to increase the protection of tourism resources and the construction of tourism infrastructure, so as to avoid the destructive impact of the fast-growing number of tourists on the development of local tourism industry.INDEX TERMS High speed railway network, tourism carrying capacity, tourism industry, combination weighting method, coupling coordination model.