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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (1): 140-150.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2024.639

• Tourism Geography • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial distribution characteristics and sustainable development of sports tourism resources: A case of Xinjiang

YANG Di1(), ZOU Jin2, MA Xiaofei3, ZHANG Xun1(), ZHOU Rui4, LIU Yanchun2, SHI Jinlian1   

  1. 1 Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
    2 Hotan College of Xinjiang, Hotan 848099, Xinjiang, China
    3 State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China
    4 Institute of Earthquake Forecasting, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100036, China
  • Received:2024-10-23 Revised:2025-01-03 Online:2026-01-25 Published:2026-01-18
  • Contact: ZHANG Xun E-mail:yangdi723@163.com;zhangxun@btbu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Tourism is an important industry in Xinjiang, and sports tourism plays an important role in promoting tourism strategies to prosper Xinjiang of China. Identifying the characteristics of spatial distribution and influencing factors of sports tourism resources can provide a scientific basis for the sustainable development of the sports tourism industry in Xinjiang. Adopting the sports tourism resources in Xinjiang in 2022 as the research object, this study uses exploratory spatial data analysis and geographical detectors to quantitatively explore their spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors. The results indicate that: (1) The spatial distribution of sports tourism resources across Xinjiang in 2022 shows a significant imbalance, with a highly aggregated distribution, mainly concentrated in Urumqi, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, and Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture; on the whole, it is distributed more across the north and less across the south, forming a three-core spatial distribution pattern; in addition, the spatial dependence is obvious, with large differences being spatially correlated and with an uneven distribution of coldspot and hotspot areas. (2) The spatial distribution of sports tourism resources in Xinjiang is affected by such multi-dimensional factors as geography, traffic, and resources, among which, the average annual precipitation, distance from transportation hubs, average annual temperature, and elevation are the main influencing factors, while the road network density and amount of population have relatively minimal influence; this type of interaction is mainly dominated by dual-factor enhancement, indicating that the spatial distribution of sports tourism resources in Xinjiang is the result of the joint action of multiple factors. From this, scientific and reasonable suggestions are put forward for the sustainable development of the sports tourism industry in Xinjiang.

Key words: sports tourism resources, spatial distribution, influencing factors, Xinjiang