Purpose/SignificanceIt is necessary to explore reletive factors of spatial difference of tourism to promote sustainable, healthy and coordinated development of Sichuan tourism economy.

Method/ProcessThis paper analyzes Sichuan tourism economy with standard deviation, coefficient of variation, Gini coefficient and Theil index to measure the space-time differences, and cross-sectional data and correlation analysis method to analyze factors that affect the spatial difference.

Result/ConclusionThe study finds out: with the passage of time, the absolute differences of Sichuan cities (states) tourism economy have been expanding and the relative differences have narrowed. The spatial differences of tourism economy in the five economic zones are greater than those between regions, as the division of new economic zone is conducive to cutting the spatial differences. Compared with factors such as tourism resource endowment, tourism investment, regional economic development level, residents' income and turnover of highway passenger, the influence of highway mileage and traffic density on the spatial difference is not significant. To have sustainable, healthy and harmonious development of Sichuan tourism economy, it is necessary to promote regional tourism integration, to enhance the accessibility of scenic areas, to actively develop new forms of tourism, to accelerate the pace of construction of intelligent tourism and to improve the tourism investment and financing system.