Geografie 2025, 130, 1-34
Spatial heterogeneity and determinants of recreational vehicle and tent campsites in China: Insights from the OPGD model
, Jun Zhao2
1Jianghan University, School of Business, Wuhan, China
2Hubei University of Technology, School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Wuhan, China
Received June 2024
Accepted January 2025
The resurgence of camping tourism has integrated the pursuit of high-quality tourism development into the broader framework of Chinese-style modernization. This study constructs a dataset of campsite locations across 337 cities in China to analyze the spatial distribution of recreational vehicle and tent campsites. Using entropy weighting and the Optimal Parameters-based Geographical Detector model, it examines the driving factors. Key findings include the following: (1) Campsites cluster mostly on the eastern side of the Heihe-Tengchong line. Recreational vehicle campsites show a “multi center-clustered” pattern, while tent campsites exhibit shared clustering with recreational vehicle sites and a distinct “belted contiguous areas” pattern. (2) Government and policy heavily influence recreational vehicle campsites, whereas social and demographic factors are crucial for tent campsites. Shared location factors include proximity to city centers, roads, scenic areas, water bodies, and low-light-pollution zones. (3) Interaction effects analysis reveals that multifactor interactions, particularly in the government and policy environment, significantly impact campsite distributions.
Keywords
recreational vehicle campsites, tent campsites, spatial distribution characteristics, the OPGD model, China.
Funding
This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (24BTY070). I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Mr. Xiaojun Hu, General Manager of To Journey (Xiaogan) Campsite Management Co., Ltd., and Mr. Jing Wang, Deputy General Manager of LEHERO (Beijing) Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd., for their insightful guidance and valuable suggestions that significantly enriched this research.
