Spatial distribution pattern and attribution analysis of mountain tourism scenic spots in the central Yellow River Basin: A case study of Shanxi Province

Mountain tourism plays a significant role in enhancing people’s health and happiness, and is a tonic for promoting the recovery and high-quality development of tourism. Shanxi plays an important role in mountain tourism in the middle of the Yellow River Basin because of its rich mountain resources. A total of 75 mountain scenic spots with grade A and above (hereinafter referred to as A and above) in Shanxi Province were selected as the research objects, spatial visualization methods such as Lorentz curve, kernel density analysis and cold and hot spots are used to analyze the spatial distribution pattern of scenic spots, and geographical weighted regression model (GWR) was constructed to explore the attribution. The findings are as follows: ① The scenic area presents an unbalanced and cohesive distribution trend, and basically forms an inverted C-shaped pattern with the opening facing west. It can realize resource sharing with neighboring Shaanxi and Henan to strengthen regional linkage and link function. ② The distribution of scenic spots has obvious spatial correlation, and the cold spots are mainly distributed in northern Shanxi, while the rest are not obvious. ③ The four causes of the spatial distribution of scenic spots have obvious heterogeneity. 50.18% of the regional resource linkage level is negatively correlated with the number of scenic spots, 29.86% of the regional resource linkage level is negatively correlated with the number of scenic spots, and 27.53% of the regional traffic conditions and consumption level are negatively correlated with the number of scenic spots. The economic income of the middle part of the Yellow River Basin should be improved, and the dominant mountain scenic spots into lines connected.