Background/Purposes: The boutique sports tourism initiative in the Yellow River Basin constitutes a comprehensive regional development strategy that integrates competitive events, scenic attractions, and travel itineraries across nine provincial administrations. The study aims to reveal the spatial distribution characteristics and explore the path of high-quality development of sports tourism boutique projects in the Yellow River Basin. (1) Through using the methods of mathematical statistics, 129 projects were selected for analysis, categorized under “scenic spot”, “line”, “event”, and “destination” of sports tourism boutique projects. The data sourced from the “China Sports Tourism Boutique Project” announced by the State Sports General Administration, Sports Culture Development Center, between 2021 and 2024. (2) Utilizing ArcMap analysis to leverage the spatial correlation and explore the spatial correlation between sports tourism boutique projects and geographical elements such as topography, transportation network, and tourism resources in the Yellow River Basin. (1) A total of 32 boutique projects located in the 50 km buffer zone, accounting for 24.8% of total projects. (2) The high-density core circle of sports tourism boutique destinations centered on Sichuan, Ningxia, Henan and Shandong, and the radiation range includes its surrounding areas; the boutique route mainly takes Sichuan Province as the high-density core circle and radiate to the southwest hinterland; the high-density core circle of boutique events is centered on the eastern part of Qinghai and spreads to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region; the scenic spots extend outward with Sichuan Province as the center. (3) The standard deviation ellipse analysis shows that the rotation angle of the standard deviation ellipse in the nine provinces of the Yellow River is 79; the ellipse angle of the boutique event is 70; the boutique destination is 78.5; the fine line is 85。. Conclusions/Discussion: (1) Sports tourism is aligned with the national strategic positioning of high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. (2) There are differences in the provincial distribution of boutique projects in the nine provinces of the Yellow River. The overall distribution is clustered, and the space is unevenly distributed. Different types of boutique projects are concentrated in specific areas. (3) Suggestions: Strengthen top-level design and policy support, embed in the construction of the national Yellow River Cultural Park, integrate multiple development, and build a sports tourism cultural belt.
Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.