Correlation Between Street Space and Tourist Behavior in Tourism-Oriented Traditional Villages Under Distinct Development Models: A Case Study of Yuanjia Village, Shaanxi Province

Abstract

Tourism development in traditional villages acts as a critical catalyst for local economic development, functions as an essential foundation for the conservation of historical and cultural heritage, and operates as a strategic mechanism for advancing rural revitalization. In recent years, alongside China’s rapid economic growth and urbanization, traditional villages have confronted the dual pressures of modernization while simultaneously embracing unprecedented developmental opportunities. Tourism development in traditional villages plays a pivotal role in safeguarding cultural heritage. Leveraging tourists’ experiential engagement in traditional villages to achieve the conservation and promotion of historical and cultural heritage under tourism-driven economic frameworks constitutes a critical strategy for the protection and sustainable development of tourism-oriented traditional villages. In the development of tourism-oriented traditional villages, distinct development models exert differential impacts on the functional integration of traditional cultural elements with modern tourism services in village streets and their corresponding spatial configurations, thereby shaping tourists’ behavioral characteristics. Investigating this perspective constitutes a critical component in achieving the aforementioned objectives. Current research predominantly focuses on analyzing street space and tourist behavior under singular development models, yet it lacks a holistic exploration of how multiple development models organize the interplay between traditional cultural elements, modern tourism functions, and morphological configurations in tourism-oriented villages, as well as their collective impact on tourist behavior. This study addresses this gap by examining Yuanjia Village in Shaanxi Province, China, with a specific focus on street spaces under three development models: village collective-led development, developer-led development, and village-enterprise cooperative development. It investigates the correlation between the functional complexity and morphological diversity of street spaces and key tourist behavioral metrics—including walking speed, dwell time, and interaction patterns—across these development paradigms. In data collection, street space elements—comprising 13 objective indicators related to the integration of traditional cultural and modern tourism functions, as well as morphological diversity—were assessed through POI data crawling, field surveys, and scoring-based categorization, while behavioral metrics, including tourist walking speed, dwell duration, and interaction patterns, were captured via fixed-point video recordings to construct a composite subjective behavioral index. In data analysis, a multiple regression model was constructed to examine the relationships between tourist behavior and street space elements, enabling a quantitative assessment of the relative impacts of traditional cultural and modern tourism spatial elements on tourist behavior across distinct development models. Leveraging the empirical findings, this study further conducted a granular dissection of the causal mechanisms underlying the interplay between street space configurations and tourist behavior under the three development paradigms, thereby uncovering the nuanced interaction mechanisms inherent to these dynamics. This study applies a systematic analytical framework that integrates both subjective and objective elements, bridging the research void on the interplay between street space organization and tourist behavioral dynamics under multiple development models within an integrated tourism-oriented traditional village. It further delineates how the coordinated organization of multi-modal street spaces can harmonize tourism-driven growth with the safeguarding of cultural heritage. Methodologically, this study introduces a quantitative approach combining fixed-point video recording and POI data crawling, which enhances the comprehensiveness and precision of data acquisition. thereby providing a methodological framework for spatial-behavioral research in tourism-oriented traditional villages.