Relevance between Tourist Behavior and the Spatial Environment in Huizhou Traditional Villages—A Case Study of Pingshan Village, Yi County, China

Abstract

In recent years, the tourism industry in traditional villages has been developing rapidly due to the national call to vigorously advocate for and promote traditional culture, but there are plenty of problems and challenges facing the protection and development of traditional villages. The GPS action tracking method was adopted in this study to investigate the trajectory of tourists in typical traditional villages of Huizhou and to screen out different spatial sites with different characteristics based on the kernel density analysis. Thereby, people’s behavior in different spatial sites were analyzed in depth using the method of behavior observation, and ultimately, the relevance between the spatial environment of traditional villages, the characteristics of tourists’ actions, and their staying preferences were discussed, and hence an improvement strategy of spatial optimization was put forward accordingly. The research shows that, in Huizhou traditional villages, different scales and forms of space will affect tourists’ tour paths; the unreasonable distribution of commercial formats leads to the uneven distribution of village vitality; and traditional elements and landscape facilities are more likely to cause tourists to demonstrate a variety of behaviors. These findings provide (1) a basis for further understanding the spatial characteristics of traditional villages in Huizhou; (2) a basis for the spatial optimization of traditional villages; and (3) a new research perspective and feasible technical route for the protection, renewal, and sustainable development of traditional villages in other regions.