Rural Tourism Spatial Reconstruction Model from the Perspective of ATV: A Case Study of Mufu Township, Hubei Province, China

Abstract

This research argues that rural tourism areas can be divided into three kinds of spatial organizations, i.e., attractions (A), towns (T) and villages (V), and aims to address the increasingly serious problems of rural spatial disorders and ecological damage in the tourism-oriented urbanization process in China. It extracts the common features of the five spatial patterns based on ATV spatial benefit trade-offs and proposes a single-kernel spatial reconstruction model. The model emphasizes the moderate concentration of space utility and considers towns as the suppliers of tourism-supporting facilities, which prevents negative impacts arising from decentralized development. In addition, tourist attractions and villages are arranged by category, so as to protect the quality of the overall habitat. Taking Mufu Township as an example, the paper demonstrates the optimal reconstruction of ATV space and displays the effectiveness of spatial reconstruction in Mufu Township since 2009. Mufu Township has been rejuvenated. The single-kernel spatial reconstruction model not only builds the space management platform for Mufu Township, but also provides an operable theoretical basis for the reconstruction of new rural tourism spaces and offers the possibility of developing Chinese rural areas sustainably.