Abstract: This study was based on the theories of industry integration, industry chain value, and coupling coordination, as well as previous research results. Taking the development level of the tea industry and tourism industry in the eight main tea-producing areas in China from 2011 to 2020 as the empirical research object, a quality evaluation index system for the development of the tea and tourism industry was constructed, and the coupling coordination model and spatial analysis method were used to evaluate and present the effect of tea tourism integration. And regression models were used to explore the driving mechanism of tea tourism integration development. The results indicate that the tea and tourism industries in the main tea-producing areas over the past decade were highly coupled, which were present in the middle to late stages of integrated development. The overall trend shows a spatial feature of "high in the middle and low on both sides", with an inverted "U" shape in the east-west direction. The high value area at the provincial level has always been Yunnan Province. The driving force mechanism is the joint influence of internal and external factors: the internal driving force is the internal coupling between the tea and tourism industries, which drives the formation of a new business model: the integration of tea and tourism. In terms of external macro environment, policy guidance and support are the leading forces, sustained economic development is the driving force, social and cultural prosperity is the pulling force, and technological innovation and application are the supporting forces. Suggestions were also made on further promoting the integrated development of tea tourism consisting of strengthening government guidance and support to improve factor protection, promoting the improvement of industry quality and efficiency to consolidate the foundation of development, digging and highlighting cultural connotations to expand the depth of development, applying technology to cultivate talents and thus strengthen development support.

Key words: integration of tea and tourism industry, coupling degree, coupling coordination degree, dynamic mechanism