Tourism sectorization opportunity spectrum model and space partition of tourism urbanization area: a case of the Mayangxi ecotourism area, Fujian province, China

Nowadays, tourism has become an increasingly significant driving force of modern urbanization in China. However, it has caused varieties of problems, such as resource unreasonable utilization, society unfair play, and environment pollution, etc. Thus, the establishment of an efficient and sustainable space partition model for tourism urbanization, from the geographical perspective, is highly necessary and urgent. Herein, a new evaluation model of tourist town space, referred to as Tourism Sectorization Opportunity Spectrum (TSOS), is established on the relationships between production-living-ecology spaces. TSOS is a kind of quantitative evaluation model involving such factors as urban living area, ecological conservation area and the tourism industry. Furthermore, the analysis of quantitative production-living-ecology spatial overlap has been utilized for space division in a tourism urbanization area. This paper, using both the TSOS model and GIS technology, analyzes the spatial restructure of the Mayangxi ecotourism area. The result demonstrates that tourism industrial space takes the Shanchong Village as a core which shows a pattern of local regional agglomeration and a fuzzy edge extending along the entire Mayangxi River. The urban living area should be consolidated in the Shili village with the supporting facilities and living space for tourism. In addition, Tianzhu Mountain forest park should be the key environmental protection area. The case study on the Mayangxi ecotourism area verifies that the TSOS model has strong operability. Therefore, TSOS model provides a scientific foundation for the space reconstruction of new urbanization area, and an effective tool for optimizing the space partition of a tourism urbanization area.