Abstract
Evaluation of tourism competitiveness is useful for measuring the level of regional tourism development. It is of great importance to understand the advantages and disadvantages of tourism development correctly and formulate corresponding development strategies. To investigate tourism competitiveness, this paper established an evaluation index system, including tourism development competitiveness, tourism resource competitiveness, and tourism-support competitiveness, for 14 prefectures and cities in Xinjiang in China. The characteristics and laws of spatial differentiation were analyzed. Factor analysis was applied to examine the spatial differentiation of regional tourism competitiveness. The results showed an obvious spatial differentiation in tourism competitiveness among the 14 prefectures and cities. In terms of development competitiveness, Yili and Urumqi constituted the spatial center, followed by Changji, Altay, and Ba Prefecture. As the provincial capital, Urumqi has political, economic, cultural, transportation, and geographic advantages, but its competitiveness is not prominent in terms of monopoly and efficiency. In terms of resource competitiveness, Yili is the core attraction, while Urumqi, Kashgar, Altay, and Ba Prefecture are dominant attractions. With respect to supporting competitiveness, Bo Prefecture has high value, followed by Urumqi City and Aksu. Hetian and Ke Prefecture have the lowest values. The comprehensive competitiveness of tourism is centered on Yili. Urumqi and Bo Prefecture are subcenters, and Changji, Altay, Ba Prefecture, Aksu, and Kashgar are characterized as multi-polar competition areas. Using the KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity tests, the cumulative contribution variance of the eigenvalues of the eight factors extracted by the maximum variance rotation method was found to be 92.714%. Socio-economic conditions, tourism resources, infrastructure construction, regional cultural influence, ecological environment carrying capacity, tertiary industry development, tourism service level, and living security system are the main driving factors affecting the spatial differentiation of tourism competitiveness in Xinjiang. Analyzing the spatial evolution characteristics and the driving factors of the regional tourism competitiveness in Xinjiang, this paper seeks to promote the optimal allocation of tourism production factors in the macro regional system, and provide theoretical guidance and an empirical basis for the comprehensive and harmonic development of regional tourism.
Highlights
In recent years, increasing attention is being paid to the economic and social benefits created by the tourism industry, a pillar industry for many regions [1]
It is important to measure and analyze the level of regional tourism competitiveness to correctly understand relative advantages and disadvantages in tourism development, the formulation of regional tourism development strategies, and the promotion of improved participation in domestic and foreign tourism market competition to accomplish the sustainable development of regional tourism [6]
This study focuses on the concept of tourism competitiveness, which is defined from the perspective of market position and market share [9], sustainable development of tourism resources [10,11,12], increasing product value [13], and destination attraction, among other determinants [14]
Summary
In recent years, increasing attention is being paid to the economic and social benefits created by the tourism industry, a pillar industry for many regions [1]. The earliest examples of tourism competition evaluation models are the tourism destination competitiveness model [15], which was established based on the principles of consumers, product quality, system innovation, participant status, and house-type structure model [16]; the comprehensive system model of tourism resources [17]; and comprehensive model of destination competitiveness [18]. These models are constantly supplemented and improved with the development of the connotation of tourism competitiveness and the application of models under different time and space conditions. The study of influencing factors of tourism competitiveness are generally focused on the perspectives of marketing [24], tourism supply and demand system [25], environmental factors [26, 27], human resources and management [28], technological innovation [29], laws, and policy frameworks [30, 31]
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