Abstract:
This study conceptualizes eight tourism system networks by respectively linking, through railways and high-speed rails, eight cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi′an, Changchun, Kunming, and Chengdu) as tourists′ origins, with the municipalities directly under the central government and prefecture-level cities with grade scenic spots (including capitals of autonomous prefectures and leagues of Inner Mongolia) as tourists′ destinations. The average railway tourism cost along with the traveling radius and spatial variation in tourism transportation cost for these eight tourism systems were researched using the time cost and economic cost while considering the tourists′ point of origin as the center.The results suggest the following findings. First, the average tourism transportation cost increases exponentially with the expansion of the traveling radius; thus, the average railway tourism transportation cost for the eight cities is different. Second, the tourism transportation cost, regardless of whether the origin-destination(O-D) pairs are considered with time cost or economic cost, displays characteristics of concentric circular increase when considering tourists′ origin as the center; however, the spatial variation when considering O-D pairs with time cost extends along the railway trunk line.Third, Chinese consider that traveling by trains is very comfortable for journeys up to two hours, somewhat comfortable for journeys that are two to six hours long, and exhausting for journeys that require more than six hours. The spatial area of the railway tourism transportation cost in the eight cities differs according to the comfort level.