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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (5): 1074-1086.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.059

• Tourism Geography • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial synergistic zoning of geotourism in Xinjiang

BAI Yang1,2(), ZHAO Ping2(), LI Yongfeng3, CHEN Mingzhu2, SUN Yiyue2   

  1. 1 Key Laboratory of Sustainable Development of Xinjiang’s Historical and Cultural Tourism, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
    2 College of Tourism, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
    3 Geological Survey Institute of Xinjiang First Regional Geological Survey Team, Urumqi 830002, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2025-02-10 Revised:2025-04-14 Online:2026-05-25 Published:2026-05-25
  • Contact: ZHAO Ping E-mail:baiyang@xju.edu.cn;107552303135@stu.xju.edu.cn

Abstract:

This study collects county-level data on geological relics, A-level scenic spots, and infrastructure POIs in Xinjiang, China, in 2024. Spatial analysis techniques and mathematical statistics models were used based on the theory of symbiosis to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and the symbiotic coordination level of the elements’ coordinated development. With the symbiotic development of “geology+tourism” as the main direction and infrastructure supporting services as the support, spatial coordinated zoning is conducted. The results reveal that (1) Elements are all significantly spatially clustered distributions, and the order of spatial clustering degree is overall infrastructure>A-level scenic spots>geological heritage sites. (2) The spatial density of geological heritage sites, A-level scenic spots, and overall infrastructure presents the distribution characteristics of “one belt and one core, one pole”, “two poles and three cores”, and “one pole and one core”. The standard deviation ellipse analysis reflects that the spatial distribution directions of elements are generally consistent, with ellipse centers all located within Hejing County. (3) Geological heritage sites have an attraction tendency toward A-level scenic spots and overall infrastructure, and the overall spatial synergy level is relatively low. The local spatial synergy levels between geological heritage sites and A-level scenic spots and infrastructure reveal the distribution trends of “high in the west and low in the east, high in the south and low in the north”. (4) The symbiotic coordination level across Xinjiang presents a “rugby-ball-shaped” hierarchical structure, with midlevel and high-level symbiotic dominance. In northern Xinjiang, midlevel and high-level symbioses prevail, whereas in southern Xinjiang, midlevel symbioses are predominant. (5) Based on the analysis results, five types of Xinjiang geological tourism spatial coordination divisions were distilled, and the corresponding development models and optimization paths were proposed.

Key words: Xinjiang, geological heritage sites, A-level scenic spots, infrastructure, spatial synergistic zoning, symbiosis theory