Research On The Spatial Differences Of County Tourism Development In Hubei Province

Scholars from home and abroad have already done extensive research on the spatial differences of tourism development, however, they have rarely approach the issue from a more micro perspective of counties. And Hubei Province, in particular, has no research in this area. In order to accelerate the sustainable and scientific development of tourism, we need to apply multiple statistical and measurement methods to uncover the changing trends of the spatial differences of tourism, their present status, and the laws of the influencing factors.This thesis studies the spatial differences of Hubei tourism economics in counties from2008to2012, based on76counties in Hubei Province. The research studies the present status and trend of the spatial differences, discusses the major factors that causes the spatial differences, and also proposes strategies and suggestions to mitigate the gaps.The thesis firstly analyzes the absolute and relative spatial differences in the county tourism in Hubei Province. Then it analyzes the degree of aggregation and monopoly of tourism by using the Herfindahl Index. And finally it makes an analysis on the tourism development differences between Wuhan1+8city cluster and West Hubei eco-cultural tourism, and the development gaps of respective zones by applying the Theil coefficient.The research results show that the absolute differences of county tourism in Hubei is becoming bigger while the relative differences is tending towards stability. Tourism has got development gaps, but a notable monopoly doesn’t exist. The status quo is still perfect competition. The gap between Wuhan1+8city cluster and West Hubei eco-cultural tourism is narrowing. The internal gap inside the Wuhan1+8city cluster is widening, while that inside the West Hubei eco-cultural tourism is relatively small and stable.The thesis then studies the possible factors that are causing the differentiation, and proposes the four possible factors including tourism resources endowment, locational conditions, economic environment, and regional industry development policies. The thesis discovers that the development of the tourism resources of each county largely influences the development of its tourism; regional advantages is helpful to the development of tourism, but not to a large extent; the economic basis has a relatively large impact on the development of tourism; West Hubei eco-cultural tourism has gained rapid development due to the support of the new policy; and the fiscal expenditure has a notable impact on the tourism receipts of each county.Finally, in order to narrow the gaps so that the tourism of Hubei province could sustain a healthy and scientific development, the thesis proposes the following suggestions for the future tourism development based on the factors mentioned above: continue to develop the city cluster and they could boost the development of surrounding areas; build the tourism brand based on local culture; optimize affiliate facilities of tourism; integrate the tourism resources of counties; etc.This thesis is the first to conduct micro quantitative research in Hubei Province, using the statistics of county tourism from2008to2012. In future studies, more comprehensive study could be undertaken by discussing in larger temporal scales and about more influencing factors of the spatial differences.