The Spatial Mismatch between Tourism Resources and Economic Development in Mountainous Cities Impacted by Limited Highway Accessibility: A Typical Case Study of Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, China

Abstract

We studied the misalignment between tourism resources and economic development in mountainous cities in the context of limited highway network accessibility. Using Lhasa City as a case study, we illustrated how to evaluate tourism resources and economic development and how to improve tourism resources and promote economic development. The tourism resources possessed by tourism destinations are prerequisites for tourism activities. This study focuses on the coupling coordination relationship between the degree of superiority in tourism resources and the level of economic development in Lhasa City. Data from Lhasa City in 2010, 2015, and 2020 were compared to explore a way of optimizing the spatial pattern of tourism development. The results of this study are as follows. (1) As a typical mountainous area on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, the accessibility of Lhasa’s mountainous area largely influences the choice of tourist destinations and is also an important indicator for evaluating the degree of tourism resource superiority. (2) On the whole, the economic development of Lhasa City and the degree of tourism resource superiority is not coordinated, mainly in the low coupling coordination stage, and with the passage of time, the degree of coupling coordination gradually becomes weaker. (3) If a town has advantageous tourism resources with slow economic development, it is easy to fall into the “resource curse” dilemma. In addition, if a town has poor tourism resources, it will be reduced to an outflow area of population and resources after leaving the investment drive, and easy to fall into the dilemma of the “poverty trap”.