Classification and spatial distribution of the Tianfu Renowned Catering Businesses and their synergy with regional tourism

This study employs ArcGIS to look at issues of classification, spatial distribution of the Tianfu renowned catering businesses and their synergy with regional tourism by focusing on the 445 cases in Sichuan. From the perspective of typology, the results show that the famous catering businesses were divided into 10 groups. The standard deviation ellipse extending from northeast to southeast implied that the catering businesses were clustered along the Longmen Shan mountain range. The Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis further revealed the spatial heterogeneity of catering businesses in Sichuan. More importantly was that the ant-symmetric axis extended from the east to west, which was nearly parallel to the section of Hu Huangyong Line in Sichuan. Additionally, the Kernel Density Map suggested that the dense center was located in Chengdu, with Leshan and Mianyang as secondary centers. The study identified two clustering belts. Thus, the belt one - Mianyang, Chengdu, and Yaan; the belt two-Bazhong and Yibin. The Ordinary Least Squires Analysis indicated that there was a synergy between the clustering of catering businesses and tourism economic development. It is suggested to make adjustment to the list of the Tianfu Renowned Cuisines and promote gourmet routes so as to achieve coordinated development of gastronomy tourism.