Evolution of Spatial Patterns and Influencing Factors of Sports Tourism Development in Yangtze River Delta Region

The development of sports tourism is of great significance in promoting regional cultural exchanges, boosting economic development, accelerating the construction of national fitness, promoting the development of the sports industry, and advancing ecological environmental protection. With the integrated application of exploratory spatial data analysis and gray correlation analysis model, this article takes the Yangtze River Delta region as the research object and comprehensively explores the pattern evolution characteristics and influencing factors of its sports tourism development space. The study found that (1) the total amount of sports tourism resources in the Yangtze River Delta region has accumulated in fluctuation and iteration, and the types are constantly enriched; (2) the spatial pattern of sports tourism resources in the Yangtze River Delta region shows the evolution characteristics of "agglomeration-dispersion-agglomeration" over time; (3) the spatial evolution hot spots of sports tourism resources in the Yangtze River Delta region have experienced the following characteristics "unipolar-multipolar-area-wide-suburban", and the center of gravity of spatial evolution has experienced the process of east-west linear development and north-south diffusion; and (4) the spatial development of sports tourism in the Yangtze River Delta region has experienced the process of "policy + sports + transportation" drive, "economic + social" drive, economic drive, and total-factor drive in different periods. The results of the study can help optimize the allocation of sports and tourism resources in the Yangtze River Delta region, further realize the in-depth integration and development of sports, culture, and tourism, and enhance the regional economy and public service level.