Spatial characteristics of tourism resources and the development pattern in jurisdiction of Hulunbuir Agricultural Reclamation Group

Abstract

The question of how tourism elements can be spatially organized continues to be challenging, particularly for tourism in agricultural reclamation area (TAR) in jurisdiction of Hulunbuir Agricultural Reclamation Group(HARG), an emerging tourism destination. To date, the spatial characteristics of TAR resources has not been adequately addressed and few studies have considered spatial development pattern of TAR. Point-axis theory is a useful framework to analysis the spatial elements, structure and evolution. This paper uses the point-axis theory to propose the spatial development pattern of TAR in Hulunbuir. We constructed the point, axis and zone space of tourism based on spatial characteristics of tourism resources identified by kernel density estimation and local spatial autocorrelation model. The study finds that, Hulunbuir Agricultural Reclamation Group owns abundant tourism resources. The unique feature of location and advantage of it mainly on architecture and water landscapes. The spatial distribution of these tourism attractions was uneven. The tourism attractions have been more in the western part and less in the eastern part, also highly concentrated in South and scattered in North. The tourism attractions mainly distributed on either side of the Greater Khingan Mountains, where had formed four accumulation areas. In addition, these tourism attractions concentrate on area along the traffic line and river. Common tourism resources account for principal parts of tourism resources of Hulunbuir Agricultural Reclamation Group. From the perspective of quality level, different type of tourism attractions are concentrate in different way, with the high-high cluster, high-low cluster and low-high cluster were the majority, and the low-low cluster is scarce. Based on that, the spatial development patterns was proposed. In general, the spatial distribution of TAR’s resources can be characterized as a “point-line-area” structure. Convenient links provided between the points and zones via lines, forming a string of cluster of elements. In terms of types, biological landscape, tourism commodity and water sceneries mainly concentrated at the northwest of the Greater Khingan (GK), Architecture and facilities center on the northwest and southwest of the GK and humanity activities mainly distributed in the north of GK. The study find a small differences of distribution exists in site, relic and meteorological landscapes. In terms of quality, the overall level of quality in western GK is higher than which of eastern GK. There are two high-level clusters in Hulunbuir agricultural reclamation area, one is in Taohai, Xiertala and another is in Chaoerhe. This paper presents a point-axis-zone pattern for TAR development in Hulunbuir. The pattern includes (1) Taohai wetland, Xiertala wetland and Chaoerhe wetland as the key tourism destination and Ganhe farms, Najitun farm, Taohai farm and Labudalin farm as tourist distributing center, (2) 4 transport corridors—G111, G301, S201, S301 as the main axis, the galleries of northwestern, southwestern and southern of GK as the secondary axis, and (3) the area of northeastern, southeastern, northwestern and southwest of GK as the funtional zone.