Abstract:

The spatial patterns of star-rated rural homestays have significant implications for achieving high-quality rural tourism development. By employing methods such as nearest neighbor index, kernel density estimation, and decision tree regression, this research explores the spatial differentiation characteristics and causes of 330 star-rated rural homestays in the Wuling Mountain Area. The findings are as follows: 1) From the perspective of spatial structural features, star-rated rural homestays in the Wuling Mountain Area exhibit an overall "clustered in the east, scattered in the west, more in the north than in the south" spatial pattern. The distribution characteristics of four-star and five-star rural homestays are consistent with the overall pattern, while three-star rural homestays show an "eastern scarcity, western abundance, northern aggregation, and southern dispersion" spatial structure. 2) In terms of spatial typology, star-rated rural homestays in the Wuling Mountain Area display a cohesive spatial type. Specifically, five-star and four-star rural homestays exhibit a strongly cohesive spatial distribution, while three-star rural homestays show a weakly cohesive pattern. 3) Concerning spatial density features, the Wuling Mountain Area demonstrates a spatial density pattern where there are multiple and contiguous cores in the northern part and fewer and dispersed cores in the southern part. This pattern remains consistent for three-star and four-star rural homestays, while the five-star rural homestays exhibit a spatial density characteristic of "three scattered cores in the north and a single weak core in the south." 4) The regression results of the decision tree model indicate that tourist attractions with a grade of 3A or higher (the root node), economic development level (branch node), and rural homestays policies (branch node) are important factors contributing to the spatial differentiation of star-rated rural homestays in the Wuling Mountain Area. The findings of this paper can provide reference for the layout of rural homestays in the Wuling Mountain Area and similar mountainous areas.

Key words: star-rated rural homestay, spatial differentiation, decision tree regression analysis, Wuling Mountain Area

摘要：

研究星级乡村民宿空间格局对实现乡村旅游高质量发展具有重要意义。采取最邻近指数、核密度估计、决策树回归等分析方法，探索武陵山片区330家星级乡村民宿的空间分异特征及成因。研究发现：①从空间结构特征来看，武陵山片区星级乡村民宿整体呈“东聚西散、北多南少”的空间结构特征，四星级、五星级乡村民宿的分布特征与总体一致，三星级则呈现“东少西多，北聚南散”的空间结构特征；②从空间类型特征来看，武陵山片区星级乡村民宿总体呈凝聚型空间类型特征，其中，五星级和四星级乡村民宿的空间分布类型为强凝聚型，三星级为弱凝聚型；③从空间密度特征来看，武陵山片区星级乡村民宿总体呈现“北部多核且连片，南部少核且分散”的空间密度特征，三星级、四星级乡村民宿与总体一致，五星级呈现“北部三核且分散，南部单核且较弱”的空间密度特征；④决策树模型回归结果显示，3A级及以上旅游景区（根节点）、经济发展水平（枝节点）、民宿政策（枝节点）是武陵山片区星级乡村民宿空间分异的重要成因。研究结果可为武陵山片区及同类型山区的乡村民宿布局提供参考。

关键词: 星级乡村民宿, 空间分异, 决策树回归分析, 武陵山片区