Temporal-spatial change and driving mechanism for regional difference of domestic tourism in China

By using the variation coefficient, Gini coefficient and Theil coefficient, this paper makes preliminary exploration of temporal-spatial change features and driving mechanism for regional differences of domestic tourism in China from 1995 to 2009. According to the results, we drew the following conclusions: (1) The regional difference of domestic tourism in China tends to be narrowing generally, and is less than that of inbound tourism, playing an important role in narrowing the overall gap of regional tourism in China. (2) The regional internal difference features: inter-provincial difference in the eastern region and difference among the eastern, central and western regions are comparatively obvious and demonstrate a significantly shrinking tendency, the change tendency is consistent with the change tendency of overall difference and exercises a decisive role in overall difference, whereas the inter-provincial difference in the central and western regions is small and relatively stable, having less influence on the overall difference. (3) The temporal-spatial change in regional difference is featured by: low-level provinces occupy a majority and are concentrated in the central and western regions, showing a tendency of narrowing difference; high-level provinces are concentrated in the eastern region, showing a tendency of spreading to the central and western regions; spatial pattern of regional difference demonstrates 4 types, i.e. “proliferation type”, “polarization type”, “quiescence type” and “collapse type.” (4) The driving force for regional difference of domestic tourism in China comes down to 3 aspects: regional socio-economic attribute, regional transport accessibility level and regional development policy.