Tourism land use simulation for regional tourism planning using POIs and cellular automata

Previous studies on tourism land use primarily focus on the spatial distribution, and its related impacts on the environment. Here, we propose a future tourism land use simulation model for mountain vacations based on the cellular automata and Markov chain methods, having verified and simulated tourism land use in Emeishan city at a spatial resolution of 30 × 30 m using remote sensing and GIS. In addition, we introduced a tourism land use intensity index to study the spatial expansion mode of tourism land use. The results have confirmed the validity of the model and demonstrated its ability to simulate future tourism land use. The average growth rate of tourism land use from 2010 to 2015 is 33.36%, and tourism land use will rise from 1.26% of Emeishan city’s land area in 2015 to 2.95% in 2030. Tourism land use shows a spatial expansion pattern along channels from scenic spots to the urban area. The growth of tourism land use in the protected area has an increasing trend when there is no restriction on development, especially in the Eshan region. The simulation results can provide useful implications and guides for regional tourism planning and management.