Study on spatial pattern of tourism landscape resources in county cities of Yangtze River Economic Belt

Shuo Song; Hongying Wang; Ying Meng

doi:10.1515/geo-2022-0569

Article Open Access

Study on spatial pattern of tourism landscape resources in county cities of Yangtze River Economic Belt

Shuo Song , Hongying Wang and Ying Meng

Published/Copyright: November 30, 2023

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From the journal Open Geosciences Volume 15 Issue 1

Abstract

Identifying the classification of tourism landscape resources and accurately studying their spatial pattern are of great significance to the ecological environment protection, industrial transformation, and economic growth of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Taking Zixi County of Jiangxi Province as the research area, based on field survey and network collection, the scientific statistical classification of tourism landscape resources data in the county is conducted, and the nearest neighbor index, nuclear density analysis, average passage time, and accessibility coefficient are used to quantitatively analyze the classification, spatial agglomeration, spatial structure pattern, and spatial correlation of tourism landscape resources. The results show that: (1) Zixi County tourism landscape is complete in terms of natural resources, physical resources, and humanistic resources; (2) the spatial agglomeration analysis of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County shows an overall agglomeration distribution trend; (3) the density of tourism landscape resources varies significantly, with the spatial distribution characteristics of “large concentration at the nucleus and small dispersion at the poles”; and (4) landscape resources are well correlated, with a “strong center – weak periphery” spatial pattern. Accordingly, it is proposed that protection and development should be given equal importance, strengthening advantages, making up for shortcomings, and accelerating the development of tourism industry and economic growth, and promote the high quality and green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt with points and lines, and help the coordinated development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Keywords: tourism landscape resources; resource classification; spatial pattern; county cities; Yangtze River Economic Belt

The Yangtze River Economic Belt covers 11 provinces and cities including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, covering an area of about 2.0523 million square kilometers and accounting for 21.4% of the country. Its population and GDP exceed 40% of the country. Together with the Belt and Road and Beijing Tianjin Hebei, in the form of coordinated development, they constitute the national “three development strategies.” Promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, a major strategy related to the overall development of the country, and of great significance to the realization of the “two hundred years” goal and the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation [1]. At present, the main research routes of the Yangtze River Economic Belt are summarized as economic development, industrial development, and ecological protection [2]. In 2014, the guiding opinions of the State Council on promoting the development of the Yangtze River economic belt by relying on the golden waterway proposed to comply with nature, conserve ecology, strengthen the protection and rational utilization of the Yangtze River water resources, and make great efforts in terms of the protection of key ecological functional areas [3]. In April 2018, at the symposium on further promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt held in Wuhan, General Secretary Xi Jinping systematically elaborated on jointly protecting and not engaging in large-scale development, adhering to protection in the course of development and development in the course of protection, and realizing the coordination of economic and social development with population, resources, and environment [4]. An in-depth analysis of the relationship between tourism landscape resources and the ecological environment system in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is very important to realize the benign interaction and coordinated development between them. As a new growth point of ecological restoration, environment-friendly development, and green development, the development of tourism landscape resources is of practical significance to ensure regional ecological security and achieve regional high-quality development [5–8]. Therefore, strengthening the research on tourism landscape resources is of great significance to promote the economic growth, ecological environment protection, and industrial transformation of cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Through the literature review, it was found that many scholars explore spatial differentiation [9,10], characteristics and influences [11,12], evaluation [13,14], and optimization [15,16] by taking tourism resource space as the research content. From the perspective of tourism resource research theory, spatial topology theory, fractal theory, point-axis system theory, and other spatial analysis theories are mostly used [17–19]. From the perspective of spatial scale research of tourism landscape resources, it involves macro national scale, middle regional scale, and micro urban scale, among which the middle scale is concentrated in rivers and urban groups, such as the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Beijing Tianjin Hebei metropolitan area, and Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Great Bay area [20–23], and the micro scale is closely connected with provincial capitals [24–26]. In terms of research methods, most of them use literature review [27], statistical analysis [28], and other methods to conduct traditional qualitative analysis of tourism resource space based on basic data and GIS spatial analysis methods; however, there are few studies on quantitative analysis of county urban tourism resource space. The results of the literature review show that the relevant research on representative county cities with rich tourism landscape resources is not rich enough, especially the lack of detailed statistics and analysis of tourism resource data, which greatly inhibits the good promotion of county urban ecological resources for regional economic growth, ecological environment protection, and industrial upgrading.

To sum up, this article takes Zixi County, a node county city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, as the research area. Based on field survey and network collection, we obtain sample data on tourism landscape resources in Zixi County and comprehensively use mathematical modeling and GIS spatial analysis methods. First, we scientifically classify the types of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County, which play a guiding role in the development and protection of tourism landscape resources. On the basis of resource classification, we focus on the spatial distribution of tourism landscape resources in the county. The study of its spatial relevance furnishes a basis for the construction of tourism spatial patterns. On this basis, we put forward countermeasures and suggestions for the green and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

1 Research method and data sources

1.1 Regional overview

Zixi County of Jiangxi Province is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and in the east of Jiangxi Province. It is located at 116°46′–117°17′E and 27°28′–27°55′N. It is adjacent to Guangze County of Fujian Province in the east, Lichuan County in the south, Nancheng County in the west, Jinxi County in the northwest, and Guixi City in the northeast. It is known as the “East Gate of Jiangxi.” The longest distance from north to south of Zixi County is 48 km, the widest distance from east to west is 51 km, and the total area is about 1,251 km². Zixi County is located at the west foot of the Wuyi Mountain Range. The terrain is generally high in the southeast and low in the northwest. The mountainous area accounts for 83.1% of the total area, while the hilly area accounts for 6.5%. It has rich natural geological features. The average altitude of Zixi County is 900 m, and the highest peak is Hedong peak, 1,364 m above sea level. It belongs to subtropical humid monsoon climate with a temperate climate, abundant rainfall, and four distinct seasons. Zixi County is rich in forest resources, with a forest coverage rate of 87.1%. The ecological environment is excellent, and the comprehensive index of the ecological environment ranks first among the 500 counties and districts in the central part. It is known as “Chinese jade and human oasis.” The average content of negative oxygen ions in the air is 30,000 per cubic centimeter, which is truly the “natural oxygen bar in China.” Zixi County is densely covered with rivers, among which the Luxi River, Xufang River, and Wushi River have large drainage areas. There are abundant wild animal and plant resources, including about 828 species of 328 genera of 90 families of woody plants, 838 species of 439 genera of 73 families of herbaceous plants, 27 species of national protected plants (1 species at the first level, 11 species at the second level, and 15 species at the third level). The rare tree species include Michelia Americana, Chinese toon, Fujian cypress, Liriodendron, palm tree, southern yew, etc. Zixi County has profound historical and cultural deposits and rich cultural tourism landscape resources. It has not only ancient village settlements, totems, festivals, and customs with the characteristics of Baiyue culture but also martyrs’ cemetery and revolutionary sites with the characteristics of red culture (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Map of the study area.

1.2 Research methods

1.2.1 Nearest neighbor index

The nearest neighbor index is generally used to reflect the degree of aggregation of geographical spatial elements. It is a mathematical expression of the type of spatial distribution of resources. Tourism landscape resources are widely distributed in the county space, resulting in an agglomeration effect. It can express the degree of agglomeration and dispersion of tourism landscape resources in the regional space [29]. There are three types of spatial distribution of the point-like elements: concentrated, uniform, and random. The point-like elements of uniform type are nearest to the largest distance, followed by a random distribution and the smallest condensed distribution. The formula is

(1) R = r i r E = r i 1 2 n / A = r i 1 2 D ,

where R is the nearest neighbor index of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County, r i is the actual nearest distance, r E is the theoretical nearest distance, A is the area, and D is the dot density. When R > 1, it indicates that the current elements tend to be evenly distributed; when R = 1, it indicates that the current elements are randomly distributed; and when R < 1, it indicates that the distribution type is condensed.

1.2.2 Kernel density analysis

The kernel density estimation method usually reflects the distribution characteristics of point elements through the spatial variation of point density in a region. The estimated value of nuclear density can calculate the data aggregation status of the whole region according to the input elements and focus on reflecting the influence intensity of a nucleus on the ambitus. The larger the estimated value of kernel density, the denser the points, and the higher the probability of regional events [30]. The formula is

(2) f ( x ) = 1 n h ∑ i = 1 n k x − X i h ,

where f ( x ) indicates the kernel density estimation of the tourism resource points of the destination x, n indicates the number of tourist resources in Zixi County, k x − X i h is the kernel function, x − X i is the estimation of distance from x to the event X i , and h is broadband (h > 0) whose value will affect the smoothness of the spatial distribution of the kernel density value of tourism landscape resources. The corresponding values in this area are 3, 6, 9, and 12 km [15].

1.2.3 Average transit time

Study and judge the traffic accessibility of a tourism resource element point by the average travel time from a tourism resource element point to other element points, and reflect the correlation characteristics of each tourism resource point in the county through its traffic accessibility [31]. The formula is

(3) A i = ∑ i , j = 1 , i ≠ j k T i j / k ,

where A i refers to the average transit time of the tourism element points, i and j refer to the tourism resource element points, T i j represents the shortest transit time of the tourism element points to the tourism resource element points through the transportation network, and k refers to the number of element points except the tourism resource element point i . The smaller the value of A i , the better the transit accessibility of the tourism resource element point, i.e., the better the correlation between the element point and other element points in the traffic network. The larger the value of A i , the worse the correlation.

1.2.4 Accessibility coefficient

In order to make the average travel time comparable among each tourism resource element point, the accessibility coefficient is further used to normalize it, so as to better reflect the difference in the accessibility level of each tourism resource element point and further study the spatial correlation between each element point [32]. The accessibility coefficient represents the ratio of the average travel time of a single tourism resource element point to the average travel time of all other element points and can intuitively express the spatial relevance of its element points. The formula is

(4) A i ′ = A i / ∑ i = 1 n A i / n ,

where A i ′ represents the accessibility coefficient of tourism resource element point i , A _i is the average transit time of tourism resource element point i , and n represents the number of tourism resource element points. A i ′ > 1 indicates that the accessibility of the element point is weaker than the average level in the region, and A i ′ < 1 indicates that the accessibility of the element point is better than the average level in the region. The smaller the value of A i ′ , the better the accessibility of the element point i of tourism landscape resources; otherwise, the worse.

1.3 Data sources

The tourism resource data come from the field survey and network data collection of Zixi County, and the latter comes from the official website of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (http://dct.jiangxi.gov.cn/), the official website of Fuzhou Culture, Radio, Television, Press, Publication, and Tourism Bureau (http://wgxlj.jxfz.gov.cn/), and the official website of Zixi County People’s Government (http://www.zixi.gov.cn/). The traffic road data are from the OSM map data. According to the classification, investigation, and evaluation of tourism resources (GB/T 18972-2017) [33] released by the national standard information public service platform, the tourism landscape resources and classification within the county are sorted out. By using the Baidu grid pick-up system to collect the grids of all tourism landscape resources (coordinate system: WGS1984 geodetic coordinate system, projection: Mercator), obtaining the administrative division map of Zixi County, and importing arcgis10.5 to establish the tourism landscape resources database of Zixi County (Figure 2), we use it as the effective original data of tourism landscape resources.

Figure 2

Zixi county tourism resource database (entity resource).

2 Analysis of empirical results

2.1 Classification of tourism landscape resources

According to the actual data collection and collation, in combination with the standard of Classification, investigation and evaluation of tourism resources (GB/T 18972-2017), the tourism landscape resources of Zixi County include 16 subcategories, 41 basic types, and a total of 225 monomers in the national standard (Table 1). In terms of the types of tourism landscape resources, first, there are 168 stable and objectively existing physical resources, including mountains, forests, water bodies, and buildings; second, there are 57 unstable and objectively existing things and phenomena [33], including history, humanities, and tourism shopping. The tourism landscape resources of Zixi County are mainly natural landscape resources (local landscape, water landscape, and biological landscape), supplemented by buildings and facilities, as well as objective things and phenomena.

Table 1

Type structure of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County

Main category	Standard subtype	County subtype	Standard elementary subtype	County elementary subtype	County monomer number	Subtype proportion (%)	Elementary type proportion (%)	Monomer proportion (%)
Terrestrial and cultural landscapes	4	2	17	5	55	50	29.41	24.44
Water landscapes	5	3	13	5	21	60	38.46	9.33
Biological landscapes	2	1	8	2	20	50	25	8.89
Astronomical phenomena and climate landscapes	2	0	5	0	0	0	0	0
Buildings and facilities	3	3	39	16	82	100	41.03	36.44
Historical sites	2	2	8	6	31	100	75	13.78
Tour purchase	3	3	15	4	11	100	26.67	4.89
Humanistic activities	2	2	5	3	5	100	60	2.22
Total	23	16	110	41	225	69.57	37.27	100

The specific statistics of tourism landscape resources show that (Table 1) the number of natural landscape resources that are composed of terrestrial and cultural landscapes, water landscapes, and biological landscapes reached 96, accounting for 46.66% of the total. Among them, the number of terrestrial and cultural landscapes reached 55, accounting for 24.44%, the number of water landscapes reached 21, accounting for 9.33%, and the number of biological landscapes reached 20, accounting for 8.89%. It reflects that Zixi County has a very high natural resource endowment and a good ecological environment. The number of auxiliary building and facility resource monomers is 82, accounting for 36.44%, and the supplementary objective things and phenomena account for 20.89%, reflecting that the types of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County are relatively complete, and there is no obvious lack of types, which is conducive to development and protection of tourism landscape resources.

2.2 Spatial agglomeration analysis

Using the nearest neighbor index method (equation (1)) to analyze the physical resources of Zixi County, the average closest distance is 949.48 m, while the prospective closest distance under the ideal distribution model is 1548.1 m. The ratio of the two 0.61 < 1, the Z score is −10.09, and the P value is 0.000, indicating that the overall resource space type is agglomerate (Table 2).

Table 2

Analysis on the agglomeration of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County

Category	Average closest neighbor distance (m)	Prospective average closest neighbor distance (m)	NNI	Z score	P value	Spatial distribution characteristic
The overall resources	949.48	1548.10	0.61	−10.09	0.000	Agglomerate
Terrestrial and cultural landscapes	2434.10	2405.75	1.01	0.17	0.867	Random
Water landscapes	3446.66	3954.63	0.87	−1.13	0.260	Agglomerate
Biological landscapes	949.48	1548.10	0.61	−10.10	0.000	Agglomerate
Buildings and facilities	1324.22	2139.58	0.62	−6.64	0.000	Agglomerate
Historical sites	5074.20	3241.99	1.57	2.86	0.004	Scattered

The nearest neighbor indices of water landscapes, biological landscapes, and buildings and facilities of each subtype of resources are all less than 1. These three types of resources are in a state of agglomeration in space. The biological landscape has the highest concentration, followed by buildings and facilities, as well as water landscapes. The development and protection of natural landscape resources in Zixi County have obvious advantages. In addition, the nearest neighbor index of historical sites is greater than 1, showing a scattered type. The nearest neighbor index of the terrestrial and cultural landscape is equal to 1, and the distribution is random (Table 2).

The nearest neighbor indices of Gaofu Town, Hecheng Town, and Wushi Town in the county are all less than 1. The tourism landscape resources of these three townships are clustered in space. Among them, Hecheng Town has the highest degree of clustering of tourism landscape resources, followed by Gaofu Town and Wushi Town. The nearest neighbor indices of Gaotian Township, Shixia Township, and Songshi Township are all greater than 1, and Gaotian Township has the highest degree of dispersion. Only the nearest neighbor index of Matoushan Town is equal to 1, reflecting that its type is random. The agglomeration intensity of the seven towns and towns in the county shows the order pattern of “Hecheng Town > Gaofu Town > Wushi Town > Matoushan Town > Shixia Township > Songshi Town > Gaotian Township” (Table 3).

Table 3

Analysis on the agglomeration of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County

Category	Average closest neighbor distance (m)	Prospective average closest neighbor distance (m)	NNI	Z score	P value	Spatial distribution characteristic
Gaofu Town	927.87	1320.26	0.70	−3.06	0.002	Agglomerate
Gaotian Township	2060.71	1285.67	1.60	3.05	0.002	Scattered
Hecheng Town	583.68	932.88	0.63	−4.91	0.000	Agglomerate
Matoushan Town	1203.16	1279.12	0.94	−0.819	0.413	Random
Shixia Township	1338.46	1179.38	1.13	0.999	0.318	Scattered
Songshi Town	1103.00	968.22	1.14	0.960	0.337	Scattered
Wushi Town	1029.27	1221.01	0.84	−1.441	0.150	Agglomerate

2.3 Spatial structure

The nearest neighbor index can only reflect the agglomeration type of tourism landscape resources in space and cannot accurately express the morphological characteristics of spatial agglomeration and distribution of resources. In order to further explore the spatial pattern of physical tourism landscape resources in Zixi County, the study uses the kernel density analysis method to clarify the spatial structure distribution pattern and distribution direction of the physical tourism resource points in Zixi County.

By setting a reasonable radiation range, the kernel density analysis of the physical tourism resource elements in Zixi County was carried out with 3, 6, 9, and 12 km as the search radius (Figure 3) [15]. The 3 km search radius shows that the spatial distribution of tourism landscape resources is in the form of “multi-core and multi-pole.” The core points are located in the south and southeast of Zixi County and are more concentrated in Hecheng Town and Wushi Town. Among them, Hecheng Town forms two main cores: (1) the core tourist resource agglomeration area formed by Jiulong Lake and Dajue Mountain; (2) Wushi Town forms a sub-core point, a tourist resource agglomeration area mainly formed by Qingliang Mountain; and (3) in addition, another sub-core tourist resource agglomeration area is formed by Matoushan Town and Matoushan conservation area, while the extreme points are scattered in the towns in the northern part of Zixi County. The 6 km search radius shows that the spatial distribution of tourism landscape resources is in the form of “one core and multiple poles.” The core point is located in Hecheng Town in the south of Zixi County, and the Zixi County Government and Jiulong Lake are the main bodies to form a tourism resource agglomeration area. The multiple poles tourist agglomeration areas are evenly distributed in the north, west, and east of Zixi County in a “C” shape around the core point. The 9 km search radius shows that the spatial distribution of tourism landscape resources is in the form of “one core and one pole.” The core point is also located in Hecheng Town. The surrounding area of the county government, Jiulong Lake, Fangjia Mountain, and Dajue Mountain are the main bodies that form a large tourism area; its extreme point is composed of various types of elements in Matoushan Town in the east. The search radius of 12 km shows that the spatial distribution of tourism landscape resources is in the form of “one core,” forming a huge cluster of tourism landscape resources with a large radiation range, located in the southeast of Zixi County. The main elements are the surroundings of the county government, Jiulong Lake, Fangjia Mountain, and Dajue Mountain, just like the results of the search radius of 12 km.

Figure 3

Kernel density analysis of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County.

2.4 Spatial relevance

Referring to the research results of related scholars [34,35], according to the Technical Standards for Highway Engineering of the People’s Republic of China (JTGB01-2014), combined with the actual road conditions in Zixi County, the corresponding speeds for different grades of roads were set, and those for expressways, national roads, provincial roads, and county roads are, respectively, 100, 80, 60, and 40 km/h. By using the “Network Analyst” tool of ArcGIS platform, the cost matrix of travel time between various physical tourism resource element points in Zixi County is established, and then the average travel time (equation (3)) and accessibility coefficient (equation (4)) function formulas are used to calculate A i ′ and A′_i of each tourism resource element point. The results show that the average travel time of physical tourism resource elements in Zixi County is in the range of 18.21–52.47 min, with an average value of 32.36 min and a standard deviation of 8.24 min. Among them, the ancient village of Youzhake in Matoushan Town has the longest average travel time, with an average travel time of 52.47 min, and its correlation is the weakest; the shortest average travel time is to Yanglao Peak in Gaofu Town, with an average travel time of 18.21 min, and its correlation is the best. The time cost of different tourist resource element points varies greatly, reflecting the large fluctuation in the correlation of tourist resource element points in Zixi County.

In order to further explore the spatial correlation characteristics of tourism resource elements in Zixi County, through the mathematical characteristics of correlation, the average travel time segment is set with 10 min as the time interval, and the average travel time of each element point is divided into five time intervals, which are 10–20, 20–30, 30–40, 40–50, and 50–60 min to analyze the time-period distribution among the various elements of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County.

In terms of distribution frequency, 20–30 min is the time interval with the highest distribution frequency of tourism landscape resources, up to 46.43%; 40–50 and 50–60 min are the time intervals with the lowest distribution frequency of tourism landscape resources, i.e., both account for 2.38% of the total (Table 4). The distribution frequency shows that the travel time costs of different tourist resource elements have great differences, and the spatial correlation is unbalanced and unstable.

Table 4

Temporal distribution of tourist resources in Zixi County

Category	10–20 min	20–30 min	30–40 min	40–50 min	50–60 min
Frequency	22	78	60	4	4
Distribution frequency (%)	13.10	46.43	35.71	2.38	2.38
Cumulative frequency (%)	13.10	59.52	95.24	97.62	100

From the perspective of cumulative frequency, the average travel time within 20 min accounts for 13.10% of the total, the average travel time within half an hour accounts for nearly 60% of the total, the average travel time within 40 min accounts for about 95% of the total, and the average travel time above 40 min accounts for about 5% (Table 4). The cumulative frequency shows that the correlation of tourism resource elements in Zixi County has great volatility.

By using the “Kriging” difference analysis method of the ArcGIS platform, the spatial correlation pattern of the tourism resource elements in Zixi County is visually analyzed. The results show that the overall correlation of the tourism resource elements in Zixi County is good, but there is strong regional volatility in some areas. The correlation of tourism resource elements in the administrative center of Hecheng Town area is the best, and it decreases layer by layer to the surrounding areas, forming a typical “strong center – weak peripheral” circle structure correlation (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Spatial correlation of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County.

3 Conclusion and suggestion

3.1 Conclusion

This study takes the tourism landscape resources of Zixi County, a county-level city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research object, and uses mathematical modeling and GIS spatial analysis methods to conduct quantitative research of the spatial pattern of tourism landscape resources on the basis of the scientific classification of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County, which is of great significance for promoting ecological protection, industrial transformation, and economic growth in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Its research conclusions are as follows:

From the perspective of resource classification, it is evident that the types of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County are relatively complete, and there is no obvious lack of types. It has formed a type of natural landscape resource, supplemented by buildings and facilities, as well as objectively existing phenomena and things. It is beneficial to the development and protection of tourism landscape resources.
The overall spatial distribution of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County has significant agglomerate characteristics. The degree of agglomeration of different types is obviously different. The biological landscape resources have the highest degree of agglomeration, while the historical relics resources have the lowest degree. Natural landscape resources are concentrated, while cultural tourism landscape resources are evenly distributed. The degree of agglomeration in different towns is significantly different, and the overall order pattern is “Hecheng Town > Gaofu Town > Wushi Town > Matoushan Town > Shixia Township > Songshi Town > Gaotian Township.”
The physical tourism landscape resources of Zixi County show a relatively obvious polar core form and have the characteristics of “large agglomeration and small dispersion.” The search radius results of different core densities show that tourism landscape resources are in a state of differentiated agglomeration: the Jiulong Lake, Fangjiashan and Dajueshan clusters in the administrative center Hecheng Town form a high-density agglomeration area, with Hecheng Town as the polar core point, forming the overall “transitional” decay pattern from southeast to northwest.
The average travel time for tourism resource elements in Zixi County is 32.36 min, and the standard deviation is 8.24 min. The county has good spatial correlation but has local fluctuations. Matoushan Town has the largest spatial fluctuation and the worst spatial correlation. On the whole, the spatial pattern of the administrative center of Hecheng Town is the best and decreases layer by layer to the surrounding areas, forming a typical “strong center – weak periphery” circle structure.

3.2 Suggestion

Paying equal attention to protection and development and developing the tourism industry in line with resource endowments

The tourism landscape resources of Zixi County are generally dominated by natural landscape resources, and an ecological landscape base should be established on the basis of natural landscape resources to give full play to the ecological value of various natural landscapes, such as “mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys,” and the coordinated linkage of various ecological elements, such as the mountains and valleys, natural wetlands, and ecological forest land, in response to the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Based on the principles of ecological protection, realization of ecological product value, and overall promotion, on the basis of protecting natural landscapes, the various natural landforms should be limitedly developed, their economic value should be realized, and the path of ecological priority green development must be followed. For human resources, attention should be paid to the protection and mining of tourism landscape resources such as folk activities and historical relics to highlight the value advantages of tourism landscape resources.
Strengthening advantages, making up for shortcomings, and accelerating the development of the tourism industry and economic growth

The spatial agglomeration and structural characteristics of tourism landscape resources in Zixi County are obvious, and the leakage effect of the core agglomeration area should be actively exerted. By employing the development model of “one core and multiple poles” with Dajueshan as the center and the Jiulong Lake, Matou Mountain, Fangjia Mountain, and Qingliang Mountain as the poles, we should drive the development of the surrounding tourism industry, enhance the regional radiation range, strengthen its leading role, and stimulate the development of the industrial economy. At the same time, due to the large gap in the spatial differentiation of various tourism landscape resources, based on the actual distribution of various types of tourism landscape resources, through upper-level planning and industrial adjustment, the development system of various types of tourism landscape resources should be rationally constructed to make up for the shortcomings of spatial distribution differences and promote the optimal allocation of tourism landscape resources to improve the attractiveness of tourism landscape resources.

According to the spatial correlation characteristics of tourism landscape resources, the economic development level and traffic conditions of each township lead to large fluctuations in the correlation of tourism landscape resources. The correlation of tourism landscape resources in the administrative center of Hecheng Town is the best, while the correlation of Matoushan Town in the peripheral area is the worst. It is proposed that the government should take the lead and implement the development strategy of “differentiation and pertinence.” Through government intervention, economic and policy preferences should be given to towns in marginal areas with poor correlation, especially Matoushan Town in the east, and the existing transportation axes and infrastructure should be optimized and upgraded to reduce the cost of travel time and enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of tourism landscape resources with weak correlation.
Promoting the high-quality and green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt with points and lines

Facing the Yangtze River Economic Belt, it is necessary to strengthen the investigation and statistics of tourism landscape resources in county-level cities to carry out scientific and orderly classification and quantitatively study and judge its spatial pattern, which has an important guiding role in the development and protection of tourism landscape resources. In particular, for county-level cities with rich tourism landscape resources, as the underlying foundation of ecological environmental protection, they can stimulate the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, thereby playing a positive role in economic growth, ecological environmental protection, and industrial transformation.

This study takes Zixi County, Jiangxi Province, as the research unit based on field investigation and network collection, scientifically counts tourism landscape resources in the region, and initially focuses on the classification and spatial pattern of tourism landscape resources in the county. However, as all the statistical data are spatial point data, especially ignoring the temporal dynamic sequence, there is a lack of research on the temporal and spatial evolution of the combination of the time axis and the space axis, which will be further deepened and expanded in the follow-up research.

Funding information: (1) National Natural Science Foundation of China (52078193); (2) China University Industry, University and Research Innovation Fund (2020ITA05034). (3) Green Industrial Technology Leading Program of Hubei University of Technology (Autonomous Exploration Program).
Conflict of interest: Authors state no conflict of interest.

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Received: 2023-05-27

Revised: 2023-10-15

Accepted: 2023-10-21

Published Online: 2023-11-30

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2022-0569

Keywords for this article

tourism landscape resources; resource classification; spatial pattern; county cities; Yangtze River Economic Belt

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BY 4.0