## 3 Results and Discussion
### Ecological Compensation Mechanism for the Tourism Industry during the COVID-19 Pandemic
#### 3.3.2 Correction of Ecological Compensation Coefficient in the Tourism Industry  
We aimed to accurately measure the ecological benefits increased by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scenic areas. IBM SPSS Statistics 26 software was used to analyze the relevant indicators that affected the tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, excluding carbon emissions from tourism. The carbon compensation coefficient was adjusted under different economic and social development conditions to obtain the damage degree coefficient (R) of the tourism industry affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Table 5, it can be observed that there are significant correlations between the following indicators: PECG and AROT (0.515), PRON (0.731); AMOR and GDOE (\(-\)0.685); and LONS and AROT (0.662). These variables exhibit strong direct correlations, indicating high information overlap. The correlation between PECG and PRON is 0.731, suggesting that the level of regional tourism development or the high concentration of natural scenic areas strongly impacts the per capita GDP in that region. The same logic applies to the correlation between PECG and AROT. Therefore, when selecting indicators for ecological compensation in the tourism industry, it is advisable to consider including PRON. The correlation between AMOR and GDOE is significant (\(-\)0.685), indicating that the decrease in tourism revenue significantly impacted the local area's total GDP. Therefore, to calculate the ecological compensation that aligns more closely with the economic losses suffered by the regional tourism industry, selecting AMOR as a research indicator is advisable when studying ecological compensation in the tourism industry. The correlation between LONS and AROT is significant (0.662), indicating that the size of natural scenic  
Figure 5: Distribution of total carbon compensation from 2019 to 2020.  
areas explicitly influences the size of regional tourist attractions. Moreover, natural scenic areas have a more vital carbon sequestration capacity than general tourist attractions. Therefore, the scope of natural scenic areas should be addressed in studying ecological compensation in the tourism industry. The correlation between AMOR and LONS is \(-0.457\), while the correlations between REEC and PECG (\(-0.429\)), REEC and PRON (\(-0.427\)), GDOE and PECG (\(0.448\)), GDOE and LONS (\(0.492\)), and GDOE and PRON (\(0.473\)) are all above \(0.4\). These indicators have relatively strong correlations compared to others. The correlation between PECG and GDOE (\(0.448\)) is particularly significant among them. From the perspective of overall regional development, we select GDOE as the more appropriate indicator. REEC and PRON (\(-0.426\)) exhibit a negative correlation, indicating that the higher the regional Engel coefficient, the smaller the area of natural scenic spots in that region. This reflects the willingness of the region to compensate ecologically for natural scenic areas. Therefore, REEC is chosen for the corresponding analysis considering the coefficient adjustment. According to Table 6, the first three eigenvalues are more significant than \(1\), but their cumulative contribution value is relatively small at \(77.804\%\). Therefore, it is more reasonable to select the first four components with a cumulative contribution value greater than \(85\%\) in analyzing the indicator component matrix (Table 7). The component matrix is shown in Table 7. In the first component, PRON (\(0.807\)) and GDOE (\(0.85\)) have a relatively large proportion, indicating that the proportion of natural scenic areas in A-level scenic tourist areas and the GDP of each province have a significant impact on the study of ecological compensation in tourist areas. Therefore, PRON and GDOE can be selected as variable indicators for the R coefficient. The second component primarily reflects PECG (\(-0.674\)), LONS (\(0.698\)), and AROT (\(0.909\)). However, since PRON has already replaced AROT in the first component, it is excluded and not considered.