Research on the Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Key Villages for Rural Tourism in Western China

Taking 563 national key rural tourism villages across 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in western China as the research object, this study integrates multi-source data on physical geography, transportation location, socioeconomic conditions, and historical culture based on the ArcGIS platform. It comprehensively applies kernel density analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, buffer analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, Geodetector, and the relative enrichment index to examine the spatial distribution characteristics of these villages and their associated spatial factors. The results show that key rural tourism villages in western China exhibit an overall clustered and uneven distribution, forming a spatial pattern characterized by “high concentration in core areas, extension along secondary corridors, and sparse distribution across vast hinterlands.” The core agglomeration areas are mainly located in the Sichuan Basin, the Chongqing metropolitan area, and the Guanzhong Plain. In terms of physical geography, the distribution of key villages shows certain spatial associations with major river basins, low-slope areas, and low-relief terrain. In terms of human factors, population density and road network density are important associated factors, and the combined population–transportation conditions have strong explanatory power for the spatial differentiation of key village density. With regard to historical culture, folk-custom inheritance villages and red-culture heritage villages account for relatively high proportions, while different cultural types show certain regional agglomeration or corridor-like distribution characteristics. The findings can provide references for zoned optimization, transportation connectivity, cultural resource integration, and coordinated regional development of key rural tourism villages in western China.