Abstract: Scientific evaluation of ecological security of tourist destinations is of great significance for achieving sustainable development of regional tourism. Based on the impacts of tourism activities on ecological environment and the problems facing the ecological security of tourism in Jilin Province, we constructed a Driver Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) evaluation index system for tourism ecological security, and used matter-element model and obstacle factor diagnosis model to analyze the changes of temporal-spatial pattern and influencing factors of tourism ecological security of all the cities (prefectures) in Jilin Province from 2010 to 2019. Corresponding obstacle factors were further diagnosed. The results showed that in 2019, most of the cities (prefectures), especially those in the central and eastern regions, had transformed to V-level security, and the spatial difference had been gradually minimized from 2010 to 2019. The level of tourism ecological security of the response system had significantly improved, whereas that of the state system had slightly improved. Nevertheless, the overall levels remained low, indicating an improved management efficiency of local governments and a relatively fragile ecological environment.  Forest coverage and daily water supply capacity were the main obstacle factors for improving the level of tourism ecological security in each city (prefecture). Furthermore, the top five obstacle factors in each region were significantly different due to several reasons, including terrain and climate. DPSIR analysis identified the state system as the main obstacle in improving the level of tourism ecological security in Jilin Province. The overall tourism ecological security level is relatively consistent in Jilin Province, except in a few cities. Our results suggest that a unified management is required to formulate development strategies according to region-specific restrictive factors, minimize the regional differences, and ensure the coordinated and stable development of tourism ecological security.

Key words: tourism ecological security, DPSIR model, matter-element model, spatial-temporal pattern, obstacle factor, Jilin Province.