Geografie 2026, 131, 247-278
Spatial distribution pattern of rural tourism destinations in China and its influencing factors
, Jun Yan2
1Xinyang University, School of Business, Xinyang, China
2Xinyang Normal University, School of Geographic Sciences, Xinyang, China
Received August 2025
Accepted July 2026
Based on methods of kernel density estimation, standard deviation ellipse and Geographic Detector, we explored the spatial distribution pattern and influencing factors of China’s 2495 rural tourism destinations. Results showed that China’s rural tourism destinations increased rapidly from 2014 to 2022, but inter-provincial differences expanded, with South China region and the southern part of North China region gradually becoming areas with relatively abundant rural tourism resources. Central area of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei district and central area of Yangtze River Delta always had the densest rural tourism destinations, making the spatial pattern showing a circle structure around the core node. Concentration trend of rural tourism destinations along the northeast-southwest axis was gradually obvious, and the gravity center showed a slow westward trend. Double superior rural tourism destinations were also mainly distributed in South China and North China regions, showing a trend of three pillars with more northerly gravity center. Spatial pattern of China’s rural tourism destinations was affected by multiple factors, and the driving structure has transitioned from single-factor weak explanatory power to multi-factor strong synergistic effect.
Keywords
China’s Beautiful Leisure Villages, China’s Key Rural Tourism Villages, spatial distribution pattern, influencing factors.
Funding
This study was supported by Soft Science Research Project of Henan Province (Grant No. 242400410124) and Soft Science Research Project of Xinyang City (Grant No. 20230042).
