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Rural tourism development has been an essential driving force behind China’s promotion of integrated urban–rural development, sustainable rural development and rural revitalization in the new era. This study included 1470 villages on the national list of beautiful leisure villages in China (BLVCs) from 2010 to 2021. We explored the distribution characteristics and influencing factors based on mathematical statistics and spatial analysis in ArcGIS to provide a theoretical reference for promoting the development of leisure village agriculture and rural tourism. The results show that the distribution of BLVC presents a clustered state, showing a distribution pattern of a dual core, seven centers and multiple scattered points. BLVCs are mainly distributed in areas with flat terrain and sufficient water resources, which are conducive to agricultural production and life. Having convenient transportation and rich tourism resources aids the promotion of rural tourism development. The resulting gap in regional development is balanced to some extent by government support. The research results provide a reference value for future rural spatial optimization and sustainable development. This paper summarizes the law of rural development and clarifies the factors influencing the development of rural tourism, and it provides the Chinese experience as a model for a rural renaissance empowered by rural tourism.

Beautiful Leisure Tourism Villages (BLTVs) represent an effective pathway for advancing high-quality rural industrial development and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. They are of great significance to enriching new rural business formats and new functions. The analysis is interpreted within an integrated location–distance attenuation framework. Based on the methods of spatial clustering analysis, geographical linkage rate and geographical weighted regression, the spatio-temporal evolution of 1982 BLTVs in China up to 2023 was examined to uncover the underlying driving mechanisms. Findings indicated that (1) a staged expansion in the number of villages across China, with the most pronounced growth occurring between 2014 and 2018, averaged 124 new villages per year; their stage characteristics showed an obvious “unipolar core-bipolar multi-core-bipolar network” development model; (2) the barycenters of villages were all located in Nanyang City of Henan Province; they migrated from east to west, and formed a push and pull migration trend from east to west and then east; (3) the spatial distribution of villages was highly aggregated and demonstrated marked regional heterogeneity, following a south–north and east–west gradient, with the highest concentration in Jiangzhe and the lowest in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; and (4) natural ecology, hydrological and climatic conditions, socioeconomic context, transportation accessibility, and resource endowment collectively shaped the spatial layout of villages, exhibiting pronounced spatial variation in the intensity of these driving factors. On the whole, topography, social economy, traffic condition and precipitation condition had greater influences on the spatial distribution of villages in the western than in the eastern part of China. In contrast, the effects of resource endowment and temperature on the spatial distribution of BLTVs were stronger in eastern China than in western China. These findings enhance the theoretical understanding of tourism-oriented rural development by integrating spatio-temporal evolution with a location–distance attenuation perspective and provide differentiated guidance for the sustainable development of BLTVs across regions.

为探究最美休闲乡村时空演化规律及成因，促进休闲乡村空间布局优化，助力乡村旅游高质量发展及乡村振兴战略实施，本研究综合运用最邻近指数、分形维数和地理探测器等方法探讨了休闲乡村的空间演化特征及影响因素。结果表明：休闲乡村呈现凝聚型分布态势，主要形成了以京津冀、长三角城市群为高密度核心的“双核结构”，以川渝、闽东南、青海东部等地为次核心的“点状散射”分布特征；休闲乡村在空间上分形特征明显，呈现出不等概率分布状态，分形结构较为复杂；休闲乡村热点区呈现出从长三角地区逐渐向东北部和西南部省份迁移扩大态势，冷点区呈现出向我国西南部省份收缩态势；政策导向、客源市场、旅游资源禀赋、交通因素和自然因素是影响休闲乡村空间分布差异的主要因素，且影响强度呈现依次递减的变化规律。综上，加大对休闲乡村的政策支持力度，提升其交通可达性，构建区域差异化的旅游产品体系，有助于休闲乡村的集群化、联动化、特色化发展。Exploring the space-time evolution theory and its influences on the most beautiful leisure villages can promote the optimization of leisure village spatial layout, and thus, enhancing the rural tourism development and implementation of rural revitalization strategy. The spatial evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the selected leisure villages were analyzed using the nearest proximity index, fractal dimension, and geographical indications. The results revealed that the leisure villages presented a condensed distribution pattern, mainly forming adual-core structurewith the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze R