A. Study Case
The Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area, one of the most popular tourist areas in China, has rich tourism resources, but the transportation system is unbalanced because of the undulating terrain. The analysis of tourism attractiveness is representative and essential, and the relevant data in this area is comprehensive. The quantitative and visual tourism attractiveness evaluation was realized by the weighted overlay analysis method to study the coordinated development of tourism transportation in the region, which could play theoretical and methodological guiding significance on regional tourism transportation network planning.
1) Distribution of Traffic and Tourism: The Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area is located in the northern plateau of Sichuan Province, northeast of Tibetan Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Ngawa, covering 32,000 square kilometers, more than 300 kilometers away from Chengdu. The tourism industry in this region is well developed with a comprehensive and reasonable transportation system. The railway networks, highway networks, national highway networks, provincial highway networks, and five airports have been established.
The WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_48N coordinate system was selected for spatial analysis in ArcGIS, then the distribution vectors of scenic spots and transportation system were obtained by georeferencing the corresponding distribution maps of regional scenic spots and transportation system. The corresponding distribution maps were shown in Fig. 2(a), and the corresponding vectors were shown in Fig. 2(b).
2) GIS Data and Social Economy Data: This article's GIS vector data includes administrative boundaries and elevation and comes from the National Basic Geographic Information Center in 2018. DEM data comes from the geospatial data cloud SRTMDEMUTM digital elevation data product, with a spatial resolution of 90m; social economy data such as regional GDP and the development level of the tertiary industry are derived from the 2019 government work reports of the counties and districts of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area (shown in Table V).
TABLE V ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL LEVEL OF THE GREAT JIUZHAI RING TOURIST AREA
cities
|
GDP
|
tertiary industry
|
Industry support
|
cities
|
GDP
|
tertiary industry
|
Industry support
|
Jiuzhaigou Village
|
22.34
|
16.45
|
73.66%
|
An Village
|
72.65
|
28.45
|
39.16%
|
Hongyuan Village
|
9.25
|
5.57
|
60.20%
|
Mianyang core area
|
781.88
|
383.90
|
49.10%
|
Songpan Village
|
13.53
|
7.86
|
58.10%
|
Wenchuan Village
|
36.46
|
21.83
|
59.87%
|
Pingwu Village
|
26.59
|
13.05
|
49.10%
|
Mianzhu City
|
110.13
|
41.57
|
37.75%
|
Qingchuan Village
|
24.08
|
12.00
|
49.84%
|
Shifang City
|
129.28
|
51.63
|
39.93%
|
Chaotian District
|
27.23
|
11.54
|
42.38%
|
Pengzhou City
|
179.39
|
61.24
|
34.14%
|
Lizhou District
|
138.08
|
58.52
|
42.38%
|
Deyang City
|
476.87
|
198.21
|
41.57%
|
Zhaohua District
|
27.65
|
11.72
|
42.38%
|
Dujiangyan
|
278.48
|
182.68
|
65.60%
|
Jiangyou City
|
210.71
|
97.30
|
46.18%
|
Guanghan City
|
183.14
|
74.36
|
40.60%
|
Jiange Village
|
46.10
|
14.85
|
32.20%
|
Xindu Village
|
521.10
|
329.23
|
63.18%
|
Mao Village
|
18.98
|
11.02
|
58.10%
|
Pidu District
|
414.36
|
271.71
|
65.57%
|
Beichuan Village
|
42.31
|
24.23
|
57.27%
|
Qingbaijiang District
|
345.52
|
227.01
|
65.70%
|
Zitong Village
|
63.33
|
28.99
|
45.78%
|
Chengdu core area
|
3906.54
|
2561.67
|
65.57%
|
Longquanyi District
|
466.70
|
165.15
|
35.39%
|
|
|
|
|
B. Visual And Quantitative Analysis Of Evaluation Indicators
1) Altitude Analysis: The altitude information was extracted from the DEM data of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area, and the altitude classification layer of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area was obtained as shown in Fig. 3 below.
2) Slope Analysis: According to the slope vector of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area, the extracted slopes were graded and classified. The slope classification layer of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area was shown in Fig. 4 below.
The Sichuan Basin has small slopes, relatively flat terrain, and low altitude.
3) Tourism Resources Attraction: The Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area includes five 5A-grade scenic spots (Qingcheng Mountain-Dujiangyan Scenic Area, Wenchuan Special Tourist Area, Huanglong, Jiuzhaigou, Beichuan Qiangcheng Tourist Area), thirty 4A-grade scenic spots (Sanxingdui ruins, Yaowang Valley, Jianmen Pass, etc.). The nuclear density of scenic spots is often a concentric circle, and the level of scenic spots is different; the range of influence and the intensity of attenuation are also different, and different weights are assigned to it. The weights of the world-class attractions, national attractions, 5A-grade scenic spots, 4A-grade scenic spots, and other attractions are 6,4,5,4,3. The vector of tourism resources attraction in the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area could be obtained by utilizing kernel density analysis in ArcGIS and divided by the natural breakpoint classification method into five grades to generate new raster data, as shown in Fig. 5 below.
The primary tourism resources of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area are mainly concentrated in the Qingcheng Mountain-Dujiangyan Scenic Area, Huanglong-Jiuzhaigou Valley, and Guangyuan City. Overall, the scenic spots in the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area present a typical aggregation effect. Due to the abundant tourist resources and flat terrain, the southern plain area has formed an attractive tourism cluster. Moreover, Jiuzhaigou in the north also attracts many tourists.
4) Tourism Resources Aggregation: The raster data of tourism resources aggregation was calculated and processed using nuclear density analysis tools and then could be divided by the Jenks natural breaks classification method into five grades to generate new raster data, as shown in Fig. 6 below.
In general, the tourist scenic spots of the Great Jiuzhai Ring tourist area are relatively concentrated. The scenic spots in the southeast Chengdu area are the most concentrated, and the tourism resources are the most abundant, which is also a well-known tourist district in China. The rest of the scenic spots also show a specific cluster effect, distributed in several major tourist cities.
5) Transportation Hub Density: The Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area has three first-level transportation hubs, ten second-level hubs, and four third-level hubs to help tourists quickly gather and distribute. The density vector of the major transportation hubs in the Great Jiuzhai Ring tourist area could be obtained by utilizing kernel density analysis in ArcGIS and then divided by the Jenks natural break classification method into five levels to generate new raster data, as shown in Fig. 7 below.
The southern area has a developed economy and a large population, so there are many transportation hubs. The Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Scenic Area in the north is also a hotspot of transportation hubs convenient for tourists.
6) Transportation Accessibility: The Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area is dominated by land transportation. This study’s transportation data mainly include airports, railways, highways, national highways, and provincial highways. The obtained data was rasterized with a resolution of 30m. In this paper, the radiation radius of the airport, railway, highways, national highways, and provincial highways were 50km, 40km, 30km, 20km, 10km, and their accessibilities were attenuated by 10km. Airports, railways, and highways with fast speed and short time service tourists from all over the world, so the radiation radius is larger; while national highways and provincial highways with slow speed and longtime serve more local tourists, so the radiation radius is small. The accessibility of each transportation was obtained in Fig. 8.
The proportion of different transportation was estimated in tourism travel combined with the actual traffic conditions in the tourist area. It was estimated that the proportion of airplane travel, railway travel, highway travel, national highway travel, provincial highway travel in tourism travel was 14.73%, 32.41%, 19.25%, 23.94%, 9.67% [40]. The transportation accessibility of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area was obtained by the weighted overlay, then rasterized with a resolution of 30m, as shown in Fig. 9.
According to the classification layer of transportation accessibility, it can be seen that the tourism area of The Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area has good transportation accessibility in the southeast plain area, inconvenient transportation in the northwest mountainous area, and convenient transportation and good connectivity in the southeast zone. There is Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport in Songpan Village with the right traffic conditions close to Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou scenic spots.
7) Economic Development Level: Economic development level was divided by Jenks natural breaks classification method into five levels, then resampled into raster data with a resolution of 30m, as shown in Fig. 10.
The economic development level of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area has shown a developed southeast and a weak northwest, which is because Chengdu, as the capital of Sichuan Province and a new first-tier city, has a high level of economic development, radiating into the surrounding plains and driving the development of surrounding counties and cities. However, the northwestern part is relatively lagging due to high terrain, significant topographic changes, and inconvenient transportation.
8) the Development Level of Tertiary Industry: The development level of the tertiary industry was divided by Jenks natural breaks classification method into five levels, then resampled into raster data with a resolution of 30m, as shown in Fig. 11.
Tourism is an essential part of the tertiary industry. The more people engaged in the tertiary industry in a region, the more developed the service industry in the region, and the more tremendous potentiality for regional tourism development and job creation. As far as this region was concerned, there were developed economic and rich tourism resources with great attractiveness in the southeast, so the tertiary industry was advanced. The relatively slow development of the northeast and northwest was closely related to the low level of economic development.
9) Industry Support: Industry support was divided by equal interval classification method into five levels, as shown in Fig. 12 below.
Based on the collected statistics of the tertiary industry in the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area in 2019, it can be seen that the tertiary industry in this area has a relatively high proportion, and the proportion of tertiary industry in all counties is above 30%, which matches the region's abundant high-quality tourism resources while the primary industry is weak and the service industry is relatively developed. The proportion of tertiary industry in various districts and counties is also very different; the highest in Jiuzhaigou Village has reached 73.66%, while the lowest in Jiange Village has only 32.20%. The reason for the big difference from Fig. 10 was that Chengdu, Dujiangyan had rich tourism resources, convenient transportation, and developed economy, which were highly suitable for the development of tourism resources, so the tertiary industry accounted for a relatively high proportion of regional GDP; In contrast, the economic development level of Jiuzhaigou and Songpan counties was relatively low, but tourism resources were relatively abundant, so the tertiary industry had an undeniable boost to their economy.
C. Comprehensive Evaluation Of Tourism Attractiveness
To create a comprehensive evaluation of tourism attractiveness, we multiplied each index classification layer by the corresponding expert derived weights to obtain the four major criterion layer index classifications. The calculation results were divided into five levels according to the data interval 0 ~ 1, 1 ~ 2, 2 ~ 3, 3 ~ 4, 4 ~ 5, represented by numbers 1 to 5 respectively, and resampled into raster data with a resolution of 30m.
1) Natural Condition Index: The natural condition index included two specific index factors of altitude and slope, and the result was shown in Fig. 13 below.
2) Tourism Condition Index: The tourism condition index included two specific indicators of tourism resources aggregation and tourism resources attraction, and the result was shown in Fig. 14 below.
The distribution of tourism condition index in the Great Jiuzhai Ring tourist area was not equally distributed, and the tourism conditions in the entire area were ordinary. The distribution of tourism resources was very concentrated, with Chengdu being the most concentrated area and Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Scenic Area, Guangyuan City being the second-level concentrated area, which was very conducive to the development and utilization of tourism resources, forming a regional characteristic tourism center.
3) Transportation Condition Index: A weighted overlay was performed to combine the transportation hub density with transportation accessibility to evaluate the regional transportation system, and the result is shown in Fig. 15 below.
There was good transportation accessibility with dense networks and high-level hubs in the southern zone of the Great Jiuzhai Ring tourist area; the northern Jiuzhaigou scenic spot had attracted many tourists due to its unique natural scenery, which had driven the development of the regional transportation system. However, it had a relatively small radiation range and further planning to promote the integrated development of transportation and tourism.
4) Social Economy Index: The three indicators that reflected the social economy index, the economic development level, the development level of tertiary industry, and the degree of industry support were not very spatially apparent. The values of all places in the same village were the same, so they were for reference only. The overlaid result is shown in Fig. 16 below.
Most of the zone of the Great Jiuzhai Ring tourist area is located in the mountainous area of Sichuan, and the regional economic development is relatively slow. Only Chengdu is economically developed, the related tertiary industry is well developed, and tourism support is relatively high.
5) Comprehensive Evaluation of Tourism Attractiveness of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area: Natural condition index, tourism condition index, transportation condition index, and social economy index have a combined effect with different weights on the tourism attractiveness evaluation. The weighted overlaid result is shown in Fig. 17 below.
This evaluation system could better reflect the distribution of tourism attractiveness in the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area. Moreover, the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area was classified into five classes of unsuitable development zone (1), controlled development zone (2), medium development zone (3), suitable development zone (4), and most suitable development zone (5). Our results (Fig. 17) show that 15.78% of the study area is an unsuitable development zone, 37.74% is a controlled development zone, 27.37% medium development zone, 16.16% is a suitable development zone, and 2.95% of the study area is most suitable for tourism development. The southern regions are the most suitable regions for tourism development, while the unsuitable region’s cluster is northwest. Chengdu is rich in tourist resources and has a high economic development level with a comprehensive and reasonable transportation system. Therefore, its tourism attractiveness was the highest. Hongyuan Village had fewer tourism resources with scarce transportation. Although there was an airport, the overall tourism attractiveness was weak. The Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Scenic Area in the north relied on the attractiveness of two 5A-level scenic spots and relatively convenient transportation conditions. Although the economic development level was not high, it also had strong tourism attractiveness. Guangyuan City in the east took advantage of the favorable terrain and transportation system. Combined with its scenic spots, it also had gained high tourism attractiveness.
The distribution of tourism attractiveness of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area can be considered to be consistent with the actual situation currently seen on the ground. The indexes in this evaluation system were all derived from various geographic information data, remote sensing data, and other objective data. The calculation results provide reliable technical support for the future development of tourism and transportation in the region.
D. Research On The Regional Impact Of Tourism Resources Attraction
The transportation system is an essential part of the tourism system and the primary condition for the development of tourism in a region. Right transportation conditions can enhance the attractiveness of scenic spots and increase people's willingness to travel. The transportation system and the tourism system have precise interactions: the rapid development of tourism promotes the planning and construction of the transportation system; the increasing personalized demand of tourists for scenic spots has also enhanced the tourism function of external transportation. A comprehensive and favorable transportation system and unique tourism transportation experience may also attract more tourists and increase the tourism attractiveness of various scenic spots.
1) The Influence Analysis of Tourism Resources Attraction Distribution on the Transportation Hub: The classification layer of tourism resources attraction was overlaid on the layer of main transportation hubs of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area, and the result was shown in Fig. 18 below.
The first-level transportation hubs are main airports. As the most critical tourist distribution center, Chengdu could take full advantage of the first-level tourist transportation hub and is one of the most crucial transportation system nodes. As one of the most attractive scenic spots in Sichuan Province, Jiuzhaigou already has high tourism attractiveness. Coupled with Jiuhuang Airport and railway, it forms the second first-level transportation hub in the district. Mianyang City is located at the junction of high-speed, railway, national highways, and the Southern Suburb Airport, which is also the intermediate distribution point connecting Chengdu area and Guangyuan City and plays an essential role as a first-level tourist transportation hub.
The second-level transportation hubs are concentrated at the intersection of important highways, national highways, and provincial highways, providing tourists with the ability to move about the area freely, and is an indispensable key node for developing tourism in the region.
Chengdu has rich tourism resources, high tourism attractiveness, and a developed social economy. Correspondingly, there are more and higher-level transportation hubs. Jiuzhaigou is rich in tourism resources with high attractiveness and has higher-level hubs whose distribution is relatively sparse due to its poor social-economic conditions and sparse transit network.
2) The Influence Analysis of Tourism Resources Attraction Distribution on the Transportation Network: The classification layer of tourism resources attraction was overlaid on the transportation system layer of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area, and the result is shown in Fig. 19 below.
Most of the scenic spots in the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area are located near the main traffic roads, and the farther ones are also within 10km of the road. At the same time, the agglomeration of scenic spots further promotes the development of the transportation system. There are a series of reasonable and comprehensive transportation systems in Qingcheng Mountain-Dujiangyan Scenic Area and Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Scenic Area, which provides different choices for tourists with different needs, and also improves the convenience for people to tour scenic spots.
There are dense tourism resources with extremely high attractiveness in the southern region. The scenic spots’ location ranges from natural scenery to historical relics, from world-class scenic spots to national-level scenic spots. Therefore, to connect the major scenic spots and further increase the region's tourism attractiveness, it is necessary to enhance accessibility and convenience. We continue to promote the construction of railways, highways, national highways, and provincial highways in the region in the future, and the rational planning of the tourism transportation systems such as tourist roads and slow-moving roads to further realize the integrated development of transportation and tourism.
There is natural scenery in the northern part of the Great Jiuzhai Ring Tourist Area. Tourists mainly go to two places, Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, and the terrain is undulating, which is adverse for increasing the transit network’s density. Therefore, the transportation mode is the central railway. The Jiuhuang Airport construction has improved the accessibility of the region, created a new distribution center, and increased its tourism attractiveness. However, the region lacks more tourism elements, and it is not appropriate to continue constructing transit networks such as national and provincial highways. There are many 4A-level scenic spots and national-level scenic spots in the eastern region with high tourism attractiveness, located at Sichuan’s junction with Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Railways and highways crossing the area enhance the tourism attractiveness of the region. Hongyuan in the west is a patriotic tourist attraction. It is necessary to strengthen the Red Army’s Long March publicity to enhance the tourism attractiveness of the place and use the Hongyuan Airport to attract more tourists.
A reasonable and comprehensive transportation system can meet tourists' travel needs, and the personalized transportation also improves people's travel experience. The planning and construction of the transportation system need to consider the overall distribution of regional tourism attractiveness, and the development of tourism resources is conversely inseparable from the confines of the transportation system. Areas with abundant tourism resources and high economic development could drive tourists' flow and promote regional transportation planning and construction. Areas with high transportation accessibility could also better promote the rapid development of the tourism industry. Even if tourism resources are attractive, the development of tourism transportation of relatively weak places is still slow. Planning should be strengthened to promote the collaborative development of tourism and transportation in this region.