From Resource Dependence to Ecological Amenity: Spatial Patterns and Tier-Specific Driving Factors of Rural Homestays in the Mountainous Tourism Zone of Southern Anhui, China

Rural homestays, core land-use carriers driving rural revitalization in mountainous tourist regions, exhibit pronounced price-tiered spatial disparities, yet their tier-specific driving mechanisms remain underexplored—particularly the cross-tier gradient from resource dependence to ecological amenity in locational logic. Taking the Mountainous Tourism Zone of Southern Anhui as the study area, we investigate the spatial patterns and driving factors of rural homestays across price tiers. Based on a dataset of 5724 rural homestay entities, we employ Kernel Density Estimation, Hotspot Analysis, Standard Deviational Ellipse, and the Geodetector model to characterize spatial agglomeration and quantify tier-specific driving factors. Results reveal pronounced tier-specific heterogeneity: economy-tier homestays are diffusely distributed, comfort-tier ones agglomerate in resource-rich villages, and premium-tier homestays form isolated clusters around high-quality landscapes—mirroring a tier-differentiated pattern from resource dependence to ecological amenity. Factor detection confirms industrial foundation as the primary overall determinant, followed by economic development, tourism resources, natural environment, and traffic conditions. However, tier-disaggregated analysis uncovers a cross-tier gradient in locational logic: resource dependence dominates economy-tier siting, multi-factor balance characterizes comfort-tier decisions, and preference for ecological amenities defines premium-tier locations. Compared with plain areas, the natural environment exerts stronger constraints on mountainous homestay layout, reflecting distinctive human–land interactions in mountain land-use systems. By empirically documenting the cross-tier gradient from resource dependence to ecological amenity, this study provides scientific guidance for tier-specific spatial planning, rational land utilization, and sustainable homestay development in mountainous tourist destinations.