Agglomeration of Tourism Industry in China Based on EG Index

The agglomeration degree is a very important performance of the tourism industry.Hence,it is necessary for the tourism industry to evaluate the agglomeration degree.In this paper,the agglomeration degrees of both regions and sectors of tourism industry in China from 2000-2008 are calculated based on the EG index.Furthermore,the fluctuation trend and corresponding reasons of agglomeration degrees are analyzed,respectively.The proposed research shows that the agglomeration degree is changing with the development of the tourism industry.Due to the unique features of the tourism industry,higher agglomeration degree cannot be considered as a long time aim of development of the tourism industry and there is a trade-off of the agglomeration and decentralizing for an area int a special period.There are important influences of both regional location and the external factors on the agglomeration status of tourism industry.