Spatial Coupling of Sightseeing-Accommodation-Recreation in Traditional Rural Tourism Destinations: A Case Study of Wuyuan County, China

Sightseeing spots and accommodation facilities constitute the primary activity spaces for visitors in traditional rural areas, so assessing the spatial coupling of sightseeing, accommodation, and recreation in such destinations can provide a critical foundation for optimizing the allocation of recreational amenities. Taking Wuyuan County in Jiangxi, China as an example and based on the models of coupling coordination degree and Geographical Detector, the spatial coupling and its driving factors of these three tourism elements in traditional rural tourism destinations were studied at the spatial granularity of grid cells. The findings reveal that while sightseeing spots, accommodation facilities, and recreational amenities all tend to be clustered in human settlements, their high to extreme levels of coupling coordination are only observed in the central town and a few large traditional villages. The coupling coordination of sightseeing-accommodation-recreation is primarily driven by tourism popularity, urbanization level, road network density, and economic industrialization. These drivers influence their coupling coordination degree mainly through separate and interactive effects on the development levels of the tourism elements. In terms of their separate effects, tourism popularity exhibits stronger explanatory power for the development of sightseeing and accommodation compared to other drivers, while urbanization level and economic industrialization demonstrate significantly greater explanatory power for recreation development. Regarding interactive effects, most interactions between the major drivers exhibit a two-factor enhancement pattern. The current coupling status of sightseeing-accommodation-entertainment in traditional rural tourism destinations not only applies pressure for the conservation of large traditional villages but also hinders other traditional villages and natural attractions from meeting the recreational needs of tourists. Consequently, governments must implement differentiated management strategies for recreational amenities that are tailored to different types of scenic areas.