Work

Sustainable Spatial Distribution and Determinants of Key Rural Tourism Villages in China: Promoting Balanced Regional Development

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Understanding the spatial distribution and sustainable development of rural tourism is essential for promoting balanced regional growth and formulating optimized policy strategies. This study aims to provide insights into sustainable development and policy optimization. Utilizing geographic information system technology, dominance analysis, and Geodetector statistical methods, this research offers a comprehensive examination of the spatial patterns and determinants of these distributions. The findings reveal significant regional disparities and clustering, with a higher concentration of key villages in economically developed eastern and central regions and fewer in the less developed western regions. The dominance analysis highlights that provinces such as Zhejiang, Shandong, and Beijing demonstrate strong advantages across multiple dimensions, including ecological environment, economic development, tourism infrastructure, transportation accessibility, policy support, and social development. Conversely, regions such as Ningxia, Qinghai, and Tibet exhibit lower dominance scores, indicating challenges in rural tourism development due to limited resources and infrastructure. Key influencing factors include forest coverage, GDP per capita, the number of star-rated hotels, transportation network density, policy initiatives, and urbanization rates. The results underscore the importance of a multi-dimensional approach to enhance rural tourism competitiveness and suggest targeted strategies for underperforming regions. This study contributes to advancing the theoretical framework of sustainable rural tourism and provides actionable insights for policymakers to foster balanced regional development, ecological conservation, and community-centered tourism practices.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su16198572

Authors: Yanning Gao, Haozhe Zhang, Xiaowen Shi

Institutions: Curtin University, Beijing Normal University, Wuhan University

Language: English

Topic: Community-based Tourism Development and Sustainability

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,728