A Study On Shanghai Self-drive Tourist’ Travel Behavior And Spatial Configuration In The Yangtze River Delta Region

With the Yangtze River Delta region as its study area, the core area whereShanghai self-drive tourist visiting, this thesis is aiming to have an insight into thetravel behavior and the spatial configuration of self-driving tourists. Literature athome and abroad on tourist spatial movement, self-drive tourist behavior as well asthe spatial structure of tourism destination the like, have been reviewed thoroughly.Travel itineraries are collected based on a total of480face to face interviews. ArcGISspatial analysis tools, NNI and KDE, have been applied to explore the spatialconfiguration of self-drive traveling. By setting the control group of travel time anddistance, using data statistical tools as EXCEL, the paper puts weight on the distanceand disposable time factors that affect tourist behavior as well as other issues. Basedon the analysis on the spatial configuration of traveling and the rules extracted fromtravel behavior, this thesis put forward the suggestions as to self-drive tourism. Itconcluded that:1. The spatial configuration of traveling①The spatial patterns of Shanghai self-drive tourists’visit points: the numberof scenic area or spot visited in weekend is small, and the visit points are evenlydistributed. However, except for Xishan scenic area, the date of the other threedestinations show that the number of scenic area or spot visited soars significantly inthe Golden Week and the visit points enjoyed an aggregated distribution.②The agglomeration features of the visit points: the scope of tourist movementis larger in the Golden Week than in weekend. Most high density areas are locatednear the scenic spots where interviews are implemented and the cities near thescenic spots, some situated along the way through which tourists travel to and fromthe destinations.2. Travel behavior characteristics①Regardless of weekends or Golden Week, with travel distance increases, theproportion of1day tour declines, while the proportion of2day tour rises. Yet, thereexists neither4day nor5day tour, the proportion of3day tour maintains at a level of10%.②Visiting the“single destination”is Shanghai self-drive tourists’main formof traveling in the Yangtze River Delta Region. With the increase of travel distance ordisposable time, self-drive tourists are prone to visiting more destinations, and,what’s more, the uncertainty of their journey increases too.③Sightseeing is the principal type of activity that Shanghai self-drive touristsenjoy once they reached the destination area. And tourists are usually inclined toscenic areas which have already been perfectly developed. Compared with weekends,more tourists choose to stay in the hotel to spend their leisure time.④Mean number of scenic spots visited per day in weekends is more than that inthe Golden week. The time factor exerts enormous influence on this data.3. Itinerary patterns①Direct route is Shanghai self-drive tourists’main pattern of traveling in theYangtze River Delta Region. As disposable time increasing, the proportion of directroute declines, while that of base camp soars. Meanwhile, various combinations ofroute patterns are found.②Direct route tourists have the shortest mean length of trip. Complex theitinerary patterns, the mean trip length increases.③Synthesizing the road usage of tourists and the KDE map, the thesis points outthat the itineraries of tourists are highly dependent on the existing highway network,self-driving tourist flow diffuses along the highway. Direct route increases theamount of visiting, full orbit helps to expand the range of visiting space, base campextends the residence time of the tourists in destinations. The high density areas arebound to concentrate in the area where tourism resources gathered and thedestination enjoys a good tourism infrastructure and public service facilities. The linefrom home to destination will form a “point–axis” spatial visiting pattern which iscomposed of the high density areas as its nodes as well as the expressways as its major transit lines. The high density areas will gradually differentiate into corevisiting areas and marginal zones.