Case Study on the Evaluation of Tourism Comprehensive Competitiveness of Mount Huangshan as a World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site Based on Factor Analysis

As a World Natural and Cultural Heritage site, the evaluation of Mount Huangshan's tourism competitiveness holds significant reference value for promoting the sustainable development of dual-heritage sites. In this study, a comprehensive evaluation system consisting of 22 indicators was constructed based on time-series data from Mount Huangshan Scenic Area (2015–2024), and quantitative evaluation was conducted using factor analysis. To address the challenge of the sample size being smaller than the number of indicators, principal component analysis (PCA) was employed for intra-group dimensionality reduction of the raw indicators. Following the extraction of five comprehensive indicators, factor analysis was performed. The results indicate that two common factors—"Core Development and Service Competitiveness" and "Industrial Investment and Market Competitiveness"—were extracted, with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 97.62%. The comprehensive tourism competitiveness of Mount Huangshan from 2015 to 2024 showed a steady upward trend, with the comprehensive score rising from -1.16 to 1.39. Notably, the factor of industrial investment and market competitiveness demonstrated strong resilience, showing a rapid recovery after fluctuations caused by the pandemic. Finally, suggestions are proposed in terms of consolidating protection foundations, deepening cultural-tourism integration, and cultivating diversified business formats, providing a reference for the high-quality development of Mount Huangshan and similar dual-heritage sites.