Agglomeration and/or differentiation at regional scale? Geographic spatial thinking of hotel distribution–a case study of Guangdong, China

This study is among the first attempts to understand hotel location choice by developing a spatial framework based on spatial autocorrelation to investigate hotel pattern. By taking Guangdong Province, China as the study context, this research analyzes the differentiation and agglomeration effects of star-rated hotels in terms of absolute number and density at the county level with Local Moran’s I. The spatially diverse relationships between 13 factors and the number of star-rated hotels were quantified by regions classified by the Local Moran’s I. Results indicate that (1) counties with positive agglomeration were located south of the Pearl River Delta; (2) factors influencing hotel location choice varied across regions; and (3) attractions and urbanization do not always affect hotel location choices.