From Occupation and Planning to Production: The Spatial Logic and Process of Land Capitalization in Coastal Tourism Destinations

Land capitalization has become one of the central issues in contemporary China’s economic development and land system reform. Existing scholarship has predominantly approached this topic from the perspectives of effects, governance, and property rights, while a spatial analytical lens remains conspicuously absent. This study draws on the theoretical perspective of the production of space (spatial politics) and selects Xunliao Bay, a coastal tourism destination currently undergoing rapid land capitalization, as a typical case. Based on qualitative methods, including three-phase, five-time interviews and non-participatory observation conducted in Xunliao Bay, it investigates the spatial logic and restructuring processes of land capitalization in coastal tourism areas. The findings reveal that: (1) Land capitalization in coastal tourism destinations is essentially a process of the spatialization of capital, following a logical sequence of “spatial occupation–spatial planning–spatial production.” (2) In Xunliao Bay, land capitalization has generated multifaceted spatial consequences, leading to the reconfiguration of land property rights, land functional attributes, and land morphology. (3) Far from being a purely economic value-adding endeavor, land capitalization in coastal tourism destinations constitutes a spatial political process fraught with power struggles, interest negotiations, and conflicts. In this process, capital forges “growth coalitions” with local governments to complete land consolidation and property rights restructuring, subsequently redefines land attributes through planning mechanisms to safeguard its own interests, and ultimately engages in selective land use to carry out landscape construction and spatial production, thereby profoundly reshaping the local socio-spatial fabric. This study extends the spatial perspective and tourism context within land capitalization research and deepens the theoretical understanding of land capitalization as a socio-spatial and political process.