The Spatial Distribution Patterns of the Catering Trade in Nanchang based on Internet Public Reviews

The spatial distribution characteristics and patterns of the catering industry in Nanchang were studied to determine the spatial laws of the local urban catering organizations. To establish a word-of-mouth evaluation system, the evaluation data of selected catering merchants were used to calculate comprehensive word-of-mouth scores and rankings for each merchant using principal component analysis. A nuclear density analysis of the spatial distribution of the catering industry was also carried out. The study results showed that Nanchang catering merchants can be divided into three groups of which high-consumption (the total amount of money spent by each customer at a single sitting) merchants accounted for 2.8%, middle-consumption merchants accounted for 37%, and low-consumption merchants accounted for 60.2%. The catering industry’s overall development level was further found to be low. Moreover, the high-consumption merchants were predominantly clustered in Honggutan, while the low-to-medium consumption merchants were mainly located in Zhongshan City. There was also a correlation between merchant distribution and merchant word-of-mouth: The distribution of catering chambers determined the level of word-of-mouth, and the degree of word-of-mouth determined the direction of catering development. Additionally, it was established that the internal business form and activity patterns of a city could affect the spatial distribution trends of catering merchants. Importantly, the study of network data combined with urban physical spaces could play a significant role in urban planning.

Catering merchants; Nanchang; Public reviews; Spatial pattern

People’s daily lives and the internal organization of city spaces have changed enormously alongside the rapid development of information technology. To adapt to this trend, the theory of urban planning, the main aim of which is to study urban spatial organization and its changes, should seek to innovate its paradigms and methods. Such innovation is predominantly evident in the wide application of information technology in urban and regional research, the connections between network spaces and urban physical spaces, and discussions on the future of urban development (Zhen et al., 2007). Remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and thermodynamic charts can be used to study urban spaces on a macro level (Wu & Ye, 2016; Du et al., 2018). The data found in messages, blogs, locations, and people’s daily lives can also be applied to study the behavioral characteristics of urban residents in microcosmic terms (Xiao et al., 2013; Ding et al., 2015; Li et al., 2016). Overall, paradigms and methods utilizing both network spaces and urban physical spaces are gradually increasing. The application of the big data of cities and their residents to urban network spaces is also becoming mainstream. However, the study of spatial organization and the structure of urban physical spaces is relatively lacking.

Scholars are paying increasing attention to the spatial distribution patterns of urban service industries, with their research scope covering commercial (Wu et al., 2003; Zhou & Ji, 2009) and production services (Zhen et al., 2008; Xue et al., 2011). The catering trade is not only an important branch of commercial services, but also a necessary link in urban spatial organization. Diet, the environment, and culture merge to form a culture with a history. The catering trade is undoubtedly an extremely important feature of city life. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of the catering trade and its driving factors are greatly significant in guiding future urban construction. However, the study of the spatial distribution of the catering trade, which is proportional to the speed of a city’s growth, is obviously not sufficient (Lu, 2007).

Foreign scholars have previously analyzed the spatial distribution of the catering trade from the perspective of tourism and transportation (Wall et al., 1985). They found that the catering trade is most concentrated in a city’s central business district or in well-developed transportation areas. It was also established that there is a close connection between the urban catering trade and transportation, and a catering development model has therefore been proposed with roads and traffic as guides.

Domestic research started comparatively late and has focused primarily on the analysis of star-rated hotels and hotel management (Hu & Zhang, 2002; Wen, 2004). The volume of research concentrating on the spatial distribution of the catering trade is however low, and tended to be based on a single-subject design (Lu, 2007).

With the rapid development of the Internet, catering consumption models combined with Internet data will surely become the new development models for the catering industry. This will undoubtedly play a positive role in promoting the development of the catering industry. Through the use of network data, this study analyzed the spatial distribution patterns of the catering industry and their influencing factors, which not only provides a useful reference for the development of the catering industry, but also for city planning. Secondly, the combination of network data and urban geospatial information changes the research paradigm of traditional urban space to a certain extent. It is gradually becoming a new method or a new direction in urban planning that can also be utilized in even larger disciplines.

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