Abstract: The small and medium-sized cities along the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway were selected as research objects. From the four aspects of economic development level, transportation location conditions, tourism resource endowment and tourism reception capacity, an index system was established to influence the development level of tourism economy, and econometric panel data was constructed. The study found that the level of tourism economic development is positively correlated with the level of regional economic development, the richness of tourism resources, and the reception capacity of tourist destinations, and is negatively correlated with the passenger volume of railways, that is, the “corridor effect” makes the tourism development of small and medium-sized cities along the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway did not benefit from it. It is suggested that we should start from improving the tourism attractiveness of small and medium-sized cities, and cooperate with the central cities to achieve win-win results, and convert the accessibility brought by high-speed rail into actual tourism profits.

Key words: Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, tourism economy, corridor, tactics