Quantitative Geography Analysis on Spatial Structure of A-grade Tourist Attractions in China

doi:10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2015.01.002

Abstract

Abstract:

Tourist attraction is a very important carrier of tourism activities. A-grade tourist attraction is a national standard of comprehensive evaluation about tourist attractions quality and grade in China. In this paper, spatial structure of 2424 national A-grade tourist attractions are investigated by using GIS and quantitative analysis methods, such as nearest neighbor index (NNI), quadrat analysis, Gini coefficient and hot spot clustering. Spatial accessibility of all A-grade tourist attractions was calculated using cost weighted distance method and ArcGIS software. Service range of each tourist attraction at 4A grade and above in China was delimitated based on the cost allocation method. Results show that China's A-grade tourist attractions present aggregate distribution characteristics on the whole, and cultural attractions aggregate distribution is higher than of natural tourist attractions. Above-4A grade quality attractions aggregate distribution is lower than the Below-4A grade tourist attractions; cultural Above-4A grade are significantly greater than the cultural Below-4A grade tourist attractions. A-grade tourist attractions in China's eight districts are aggregate. The spatial distribution uniformity is low. Affected by the degree of economic development and tourism resources endowment, the service range of Above-4A grade attractions is big in West, small in East, big in North, and small in South. First-order hot spots areas were mainly concentrated in the east side of the line formed by Deqen-Alxa Left Banner. The second-order hot spot areas were composed of 11 regions, while the third-order hot spot areas include Beijing, Tianjin, Central Plains and the Yangtze River Delta.

Key words: spatial structure, spatial accessibility, GIS, China, tourist attractions

PAN Jinghu, LI Junfeng, CONG Yibo. Quantitative Geography Analysis on Spatial Structure of A-grade Tourist Attractions in China[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2015, 6(1): 12-20.

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