LIU Zehua, GU Zongxin, WANG Nannan, LI Haitao, GU Jianghui
Leisure time is the primary factor that influences tourist behaviours. With the development of tourism industry and more research done on this topic, it is critical to understand the influence of leisure time on spatial structure of tourist market. However, little research has been made in this field. China has five three-day-long national holidays, including the New Year's Day, the Tomb-sweeping Day, the "Labor Day", the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-autumn Festival, and two seven-day-long golden weeks, the Spring Festival and the National Day. Teachers and the students have another two vacations: winter vacation and summer vacation. The variation of holiday time provides a possibility to study the influence of leisure time constraint on spatial structure of domestic tourist market. This research examines 18026 questionnaires collected at the Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing, which are 6 data sets with 3 different types of leisure time: "Labour Day" in 2008 and 2009, "National Day" in 2007 and 2008, and summer vacation in 2008 and 2009. Several indexes are used to analyze the questionnaire, including spatial concentration index (SCI) of tourist origins, attraction radius (AR), distance decay curve, and gravity model. The spatial structure of domestic tourist market differs by the length of leisure time. Tourists prefer a short trip with a short leisure time, such as the three-day-long Labour Day, and tourist origins are concentrated. The spatial concentration index (SCI) in Labour Day in 2008 and 2009 are 44.24 and 40.89, 201.76 km and 204.94 km for the attraction radius (AR), 1.349 and 1.472 for the distance decay index, respectively. Tourists will extend trip distance once the time constraint reduces. For example, tourist origins spread widely during the National Day and summer vacation. The portion of long distance tourist is increased, and consequently, attraction radius enlarged, spatial concentration index (SCI) reduced, distance decay curve smoothed. For the "National Day" in 2007 and 2008, and summer vacation in 2008 and 2009, the spatial concentration index (SCI) is 43.58, 34.61, 28.76 and 29.98, while the attraction radius (AR) is 223.87 km, 281.51 km, 552.36 km and 454.42 km, and distance decay index is 0.990, 1.325, 0.828 and 0.812, respectively. Among these factors, population, incoming, and distance, geographic distance has more influence on tourist flows than the other two factors, followed by income; populations has the least influence. However, our research indicates that population at tourist origins or tourists' income neither enhances nor declines their influences on tourist volume when leisure time increases.