Spatially Illustrating Leisure Agriculture: Empirical Evidence from Picking Orchards in China

Jiaxing Cui, Ruihao Li, Lingyu Zhang and Ying Jing
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Jiaxing Cui: Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Academy of Wuhan Metropolitan Area, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Ruihao Li: Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Academy of Wuhan Metropolitan Area, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Lingyu Zhang: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
Ying Jing: Ningbo Institute of Technology, School of Economics, Zhejiang University, Ningbo 315000, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: In the context of rural revitalization strategies and humans’ increasing leisure pursuit, leisure agriculture starts to act as a new engine of rural economic growth and industrial upgradation. Unraveling the agri-leisure developmental regularity from a spatial perspective facilitates urban-rural integration and poverty alleviation in rural regions. Given the lack of spatially analyzing agri-leisure (e.g., sightseeing picking orchards) especially at the macro-spatial scale (e.g., the national scale), this study aims to explore the spatiality of leisure agriculture and its fundamental driving mechanisms based on geo-visual (spatially visualizing) analytical tools looking at 20,778 picking orchards in China. Results show that: (1) Picking orchards are distributed in the form of clusters with striking disparity at multiple spatial scales; (2) Five spatial agglomerations are found involving the regions around Beijing and Tianjin, Shandong hinterland, Henan hinterland, the core district of the Yangtze Delta, and the core district of the Pearl River Delta; (3) The driving mechanisms are revealed, and the spatial pattern of picking orchards is found to be largely influenced by morphology, distance to central cities, traffic conditions, economic level, and tourism resources. This study is conducive to optimizing the spatial planning of rural eco-tourism towards sustainable agro-development.

Keywords: sightseeing picking orchards; agri-tourism; geo-big data; spatial analysis; rural revitalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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