Based on statistical data of inbound tourism and sampling information of inbound tourists from 1996 to 2010，the transfer quantity of inbound tourists model was used to analyze the spatial transfer of the inbound tourist of twelve provinces of western China. The results show that：(1) the twelve provinces of western China are the secondary destination of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong; Beijing，Shanghai and Guangdong are the secondary destination of inbound tourists concentration in the twelve provinces of western China. There is a rule of “form east to west” for the inbound tourists.(2) There is also concentration and diffusion phenomena between western China and central China,some provinces become the “station” and “secondary basis distribution”. The inbound tourists exists the typical phenomenon of “from center to west”. (3) There also exist the concentration and diffusion phenomenon for the inbound tourists among the twelve provinces of western China, the tourism resource and the distance attenuation are the main factors affected the inbound tourists. The twelve provinces of western China have significant interaction effect in inbound tourist concentration and diffusion.

inbound tourist；concentration and diffusion；transfer；western provinces of China