Study On The Spatial And Temporal Differentiation And Influencing Factors Of Ice-snow Tourism Development Level In Northeast China

Generally speaking,the term "ice-snow tourism" refers to tourism that uses the ice-snow natural resources generated by a region’s cold weather to attract tourists to seasonal cultural activities related to winter.China successfully hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics,which brought substantial opportunities for the ice-snow industry,and the ice-snow tourism market has huge potential and will enter a golden development period,ushering in the era of mass ice-snow tourism.The central and local governments have also issued policies on promoting the development of ice-snow tourism.Motivated by a multitude of factors,including supportive national policies,swift economic growth,and enhancements in residents’ living standards,it is plausible that the market size of ice-snow tourism will exhibit an enduringly expandable trajectory in the foreseeable future.Ice-snow tourism with its unique experience to attract more and more people’s attention,to become the demonstration industry to execute "snow and ice is also the mountain of gold and silver".With abundant icesnow resources and favorable ecological environment,the Northeast China as the domestic ice-snow tourism destination continues to heat up.In this background,it is both important and necessary to conduct an in-depth study on ice-snow tourism in Northeast China.By introducing the concept of scale and follows the research paradigm of tourism geography,this study uses the data related to the development of ice-snow tourism from 2011 to 2019,then construct an evaluation index system for the development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China and analyze the spatial and temporal distribution and evolution characteristics of the development level of ice-snow tourism in 34 prefecture-level cities(states)in Northeast China using the EntropyTOPSIS model and spatial autocorrelation method.Based on this,the Tobit model was used to evaluate the main factors affecting the development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China.The results indicate that:(1)The evaluation index system for measuring the development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China comprises three dimensions,namely,tourism economic level,tourism destination attractiveness,and tourism support and guarantee.The development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China showed significant variation during the study period.(2)In general,the development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China exhibited an upward trend.However,the Beijing Winter Olympic Games did not appear to have an obvious impact on promoting the development of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China.From the provincial perspective,the development level of ice-snow tourism in Liaoning,Jilin,and Heilongjiang provinces all exhibited an upward trend,with Jilin Province exhibiting the highest growth rate.From the perspective of cities or states,the ranking of cities or states in the top and bottom did not change significantly,whereas the ranking of cities or states in the middle changed significantly.(3)The spatial distribution of the development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China changed slightly during the study period.The distribution exhibited a clear division between the east and the west,showing a spatial pattern of "high in the middle and low on both sides",with a clear "center-edge" feature.The high-level areas were concentrated in the four central cities of Harbin,Changchun,Shenyang,and Dalian on the central Hada axis.However,the radiation-driven effect of these high-level areas on the surrounding areas was not apparent,and the development gap between cities or states was widening.The tourism economic level exhibited the characteristic of "high in the south and low in the north" but gradually weakened.The high development level and medium-high development level areas were concentrated in the south,whereas the north exhibited the spatial distribution of "high in the middle and low around".The spatial pattern of "high in the north and low in the south" was apparent in tourism destination attractiveness,but it gradually weakened.The high development level and medium-high development level areas were concentrated in the north,which is the opposite of the spatial pattern of tourism economic level.The East-West divide in tourism support and guarantee was relatively apparent and roughly consistent with the spatial pattern of ice-snow tourism development level.(4)The development level of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China shows a non-significant positive spatial correlation,but with time,the positive correlation is gradually increasing.Without considering the fragmented distribution of high development level areas,the ice-snow tourism development level presents a significant positive spatial correlation,which means that the polarization of regional development of ice-snow tourism in Northeast China is obvious.Changchun,Jilin,Yanbian,Harbin,Mudanjiang are at a high level-high agglomeration of ice-snow tourism,but they do not play a significant role in driving the development of ice-snow tourism in the surrounding areas.(5)The number of Internet broadband users,the tertiary industry output value,and the tourism agglomeration scale are the primary influencing factors for the spatial differentiation of ice and snow tourism development level in Northeast China,with highway network density,local population density,and per capita GDP as secondary influencing factors,and the influence of the number of medical institutions per million tourists,per capita disposable income,per capita consumption expenditure and snowfall is not significant.(6)Northeast China have uneven development of ice-snow tourism,and homogenization phenomenon keep serious,which is not conducive to the development of ice-snow tourism,in addition,the Winter Olympics make the host city of Beijing and Hebei Province,get rapid development of ice-snow tourism,"snatched" the ice-snow tourism sources of Northeast China.It is recommended that the high-value areas continuously improve and adjust their development strategies to seek high-quality development of ice-snow tourism;the low-value areas seek new development paths to seek sustainable development of ice-snow tourism;and the high-value areas and low-value areas should strive for coordinated development for win-win cooperation.