The research on tourism resource classification, its spatial combination and structure is the base of tourism exploiting and planning. Statistical analysis and GIS method are used to study the spatial structure of tourism resources quantitatively in Gansu Province. The resources include natural, historical and cultural factors. Considering the characteristics of tourism resources in Gansu and consulting the Tourism Resources Classificition System and Types Evaluation by Ouo Laixi, the authors chose and evaluated 23 tourism type indexes according to the degree of importance in regional tourism. The value of each tourism type index in every tourism destination also was given by the specialist. The value of every distination is one, and only one, counterpoint vector of the multi-dimensional space, and the distance of these points is the criterion for cluster. By cluster analysis, the tourism resources in Gansu Province are divided into five classifications: the region dominated by natural scenery;the region dominated by cultural relics and historic sites;the compositive regions;the region dominated by conservations and others lacking tourism resources.
Then, according to the Maximum Welfare Principle and spatial distance, the tourism destinations in Gansu were divided into seven regions by spatial cluster analysis. Whereafter, by superposing the results of clustering analysis on the map ofpatial clustering analysis, the typological-spatial combination characteristics in Gansu tourism resources were concluded: D-nhuang-Anxi region is the one of simplex tourism resources; Jayuguan-Jiuquan region is dominated by cultural relics, historic sites and folk-custom tourism resources;in Zhangye-Wuwei region, Lanzhou region, Linxia-Ganna region, Tianshui-Longnan region and Pingliang-Qingyang region, the types of tourism resources are quite diverse, there are not Duly natural scenery but also cultural scenery and in some regions tourism resources are composed of folk-custom;cultural relics and historic sites.
Finally, the paper revealed that there are three tourism axes and six tourism centers in the basic spatial structure of Gansu tourism resources. These axes and central tourism destinations are the centres of economic system in Gansu Province, so these tourism resources are combined with these centres and they are the advantage resources to be exploited.