Assessment on the component pattern of mountain vacation potential suitability in Hunan Province, China

In China, mountain destinations offer more opportunities for vacation than beaches and springs, with a larger national coverage, richer landscapes and various diverse folk cultures. Hunan Province, for example, serves as a typical mountain tourism destination. Our research aims to assess the potential suitability and component pattern of holidaymaking in Hunan Province to support for scientific endeavors and sustainable use of mountain resources in Hunan. An approach for mapping potential suitability was constructed based on Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) of six primary factors including terrain, climate suitability period, biology and environment, human activity culture, hydrological landscape, and road infrastructure, which is calculated on the base of eleven secondary factors used as suitability criteria. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information system (GIS) were also integrated into the evaluation models to prepare six single and complex factor suitability maps for mountain vacation. Multivariate clustering was used to clarify the component pattern of single factor combinations in each mountain vacation suitability index (MVSI) class. The results have shown that: 1) Regions with high suitability are distributed with characteristics of significant dispersion and limited aggregation; 2) 15.89% of the sample mountains are highly suitable, 30.78% are moderately suitable, 42.61% are marginally suitable and 10.72% are poorly suitable; 3) The complexity of index combination corresponding to each level is different; 4) Different combinations emphasize different destination needs. The study reveals the suitability class, characteristics, and limiting factors of mountain vacation in different geographical locations on the provincial scale. These elements play an instructive role in scientific decision-making and orderly exploitation of resources among Hunan’s Mountain destinations. Furthermore, the study can also be used as a basis for the suitability evaluation of mountain vacation in other areas.