Understanding the local sustainable economic development from new “3D” perspective: Case of Hainan Island

This paper proposes a new T-3D measurement framework for calculating tourism economic space and as a tool able to assist in determining the sustainability of tourism development. The T-3D framework is described as a tourism-specific version of the Density, Distance, Division (3D) framework. Tourism economic concentration, level of integration and the degree of specialization are used to provide a touristic interpretation of density, distance and division. Taking Hainan Province as an example, this paper outlines the T-3D characteristics of tourism economic space. The results show that Hainan Province has large differences in the distribution of the tourism economy. In addition to the spatial division of the tourism economy, the spatial density and distance of the tourism economy are basically consistent in value. Further, the spatial density and division of the tourism economy exhibits a dual-core based on the cities of Sanya and Haikou, and the spatial distance of the tourism economy exhibits “core-peripheral” characteristics. The tourism economic space shows that the highest agglomeration based on T-3D characteristics occurs in the east followed by the west with the lowest agglomeration in the middle of the province. Using empirical analysis, the validity of the T-3D analysis system of the tourism economic space is verified and this is more conducive to improving the competitiveness of the tourism industry and promoting sustainable tourism development.