Abstract: In order to explore the feasibility of cultural and tourism integration development in the Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone and achieve high-quality cultural and tourism development, based on the mechanism of cultural and tourism coupling coordination, the panel data from 2010 to 2020 was used to empirically analyze the level of cultural and tourism industry coupling coordination development in the Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone from time and regional distribution through a coupling coordination model. The results showed that from 2010 to 2020, the development of the cultural and tourism industries in the Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone showed an overall upward trend, but the development of the cultural industry lagged behind that of the tourism industry;from the perspective of regional distribution, the development of the cultural and tourism industries in each prefecture was not synchronized, and the development of the east and west was not coordinated. The integration of culture and tourism in the Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone had gone through a stage of moderate imbalance, mild imbalance, and imminent imbalance. With the continuous increase of coupling coordination among different prefectures, the gap in coupling coordination level was narrowing, but most prefectures were still in a low-level stage. The cultural and tourism integration level in the eastern region of the Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone was better than that in the western region. Huangnan Prefecture relied on its resource advantages and geographical conditions to achieve optimal industrial integration development and moderate level coupling coordination. The cultural and tourism industries in the Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone complemented and supported each other, and the integration of culture and tourism was conducive to promoting the transformation and upgrading of industry, helping to improve the quality and efficiency of the two major industries.

Key words: cultural industry, tourism industry, integration of culture and tourism, Three Rivers Source Ecological Functional Zone, Qinghai Province