Land Border Tourism Resources in China: Spatial Patterns and Tourism Management

Abstract

Land border tourism in China serves as a pillar industry in local economic development and is an important sector for international cooperation. This paper aims to fill the gap in the spatial pattern of land border tourism resources in China using geographical information systems (GIS) and spatial statistical methods. The pattern was analyzed from the aspects of numerical features, spatial variance, and spatial association at different spatial scales. The results show that 3341 land border tourism resources in China reveal significant clusters and outliers at both the prefectural and county scales, offering useful information for the management of tourism resources. Physical factors, cultural diversity, regional policies, the relationships between neighboring countries, and public facilities are shown to be the main factors influencing the patterns. It is suggested that the government should adjust its management policies based on the characteristics of local resources, conduct combinatorial development of different types of resources, strengthen the cooperation domestically and internationally, improve public facilities, and protect the local environment and ethnic culture.