Ancient city tourist destinations primarily rely on historical and cultural resources for tourism development and value enhancement. This gives rise to cultural elements that interact and become intertwined with the social, ecological, and economic subsystems. Therefore, the resilience of ancient city tourist destinations should incorporate a “cultural subsystem” in addition to the existing mainstream resilience measurement framework, which comprises the social, economic, and ecological elements. The cultural subsystem emphasizes cultural significance and contemporary value, drawing from the indicator systems previously developed by scholars (Li, 2022; Ma et al., 2023). It comprehensively considers aspects such as the quantity of cultural heritage, cultural vitality, and public cultural participation.

Given this context, this study constructed the resilience indicator framework for ancient city tourist destinations based on the interaction of the four subsystems:social, economic, ecological, and cultural. Drawing from the inherent meaning of resilience in the text and building upon existing research outcomes (Zhan and Gai, 2018; Li et al., 2022), and considering the specific circumstances of Luoyang, Kaifeng, Anyang, and Zhengzhou, we adhered to the principles of scientific rigor, systematic validity, operability, and data availability in constructing the indicator system. We selected factors that influence tourism development and endogenous factors within the system to assess the vulnerability and coping capacities of ancient cities, resulting in a resilience assessment indicator system structured around four major dimensions:social, economic, ecological, and cultural (Table 1).

This study primarily utilized data from the 2009‒2022 Henan Provincial Statistical Yearbook, as well as the Statistical Yearbook and National Economic Development Statistical Bulletin (2009‒2022) published by the governments of Luoyang, Kaifeng, Anyang, and Zhengzhou prefectures, and the China City Statistical Yearbook (2008‒2022). In cases where data were unavailable, linear interpolation was used to supplement the missing information.

The Entropy-weighted TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method is an improved comprehensive evaluation approach that builds upon the traditional TOPSIS evaluation method. This method employs the entropy weight method to determine the weights of evaluation indicators, which significantly reduces the subjectivity associated with subjective weighting. It comprehensively considers the information provided by each indicator to determine their respective weights (Xie and Wang, 2022). Subsequently, following the TOPSIS method, the technique of approximating the ideal solution is used to calculate proximity, thereby establishing the ranking of the evaluated objects (Hwang and Yoon, 1981). The core concept of TOPSIS is to define the distance between the optimal and worst solutions to a decision problem, and ultimately assess the merits and demerits of various solutions based on their relative proximity to the ideal solution. The determination of weights is a crucial step in the TOPSIS method, and the information entropy method effectively eliminates the influence of subjective factors. In the comprehensive assessment of resilience in ancient city tourist destinations, considering the complexity of evaluating multidimensional indicators and the prevalence of subjective elements in traditional methods such as weighted averages and expert-assigned weights, the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method was chosen as the comprehensive evaluation approach for this study. This choice aimed to objectively evaluate the resilience development of ancient city tourist destinations and examine their resilience development over time.

The system resilience level was determined by the entropy-weighted-TOPSIS evaluation model in the following seven steps.

Step 1:Data normalization process.

The evaluation of the resilience of ancient city tourist destinations involves both positive and negative indicators. A higher value for a positive indicator indicates a higher level of resilience in the ancient city tourist destination, while a lower value for a negative indicator also signifies a higher level of resilience. To ensure the comparability of the indicator data, standardization without dimensions was applied to both positive and negative indicators, resulting in values that range between 0 and 1. The formulas for the standardization calculations are as follows:

Positive indicators:

Negative indicators:

where, ${{x}_{ij}}$ represents the original values of the evaluation indicators for the i-th city and the j-th indicator; while ${{{x}'}_{ij}}$ denotes the standardized values; and $\max {{x}_{ij}}$ and $\min {{x}_{ij}}$ refer to the maximum and minimum values of the specific indicators for each region, respectively.

Step 2:Calculate the information entropy.

where, m stands for m evaluated cities, ${{p}_{ij}}=x_{ij}^{'}/\sum\limits_{i=1}^{m}{x_{ij}^{'}}$ and $k=1/\ln m$, ${{p}_{ij}}$ represents the weight of the j-th indicator for the i-th city in the evaluation.

Step 3:Determine the weight ${{W}_{j}}$ for the j-th indicator.

Step 4:Construct a weighted decision matrix V.

Step 5:To establish the positive and negative ideal solutions for the indicators, we defined ${{V}^{+}}$ as the best solution among all alternatives, which is referred to as the positive ideal solution, and ${{V}^{-}}$ as the least desirable solution, also known as the negative ideal solution.

Step 6:Compute the Euclidean distances. Let $D_{i}^{+}$ and $D_{i}^{-}$represent the distances of each evaluation region’s vector to the positive and negative ideal solutions, respectively.

Step 7:Determine the relative closeness between the evaluation object and the optimal scheme.

The range of values for ${{C}_{i}}$ is between 0 and 1, with higher values of ${{C}_{i}}$ indicating a higher overall evaluation.

The degree to which each factor acts as a barrier for resilience can be described as the “barrier degree”. The barrier degree of each index factor was assessed with the aid of the barrier degree model to assess the multidimensional evaluation index of the resilience of each ancient capital tourism place and its complicated influence on the future growth of the ancient capital tourism place. This serves as a platform for the resilience construction of ancient capital tourist sites in the future and can be used to investigate which barriers have a greater impact on the resilience development of ancient capital tourist regions (Wang and Niu, 2022).

The calculation formula is as follows.

where F_j is the j-th indicator’s degree of acting as a barrier to resilience in the historic capital’s tourism destination. The jth indicator’s weight is denoted by W_j, its standardized value is ${{{x}'}_{ij}}$, and n is the total number of indicators.

Equations (1) to (11) were used to calculate the resilience of the four ancient capitals in Henan Province from 2009 to 2022. The results are provided in Table 2 as resilience values for the four ancient capital tourism attractions.

Economic resilience forms the bedrock of resilience in ancient city tourist destinations. As tourism consumption patterns transition towards higher quality and more upscale experiences, the trend towards quality-oriented and mid-to- high-end tourism demand has become increasingly evident. Urban tourism development can no longer rely solely on factors such as tourism resources and products. Travelers now have higher expectations for infrastructure, public services, and ecological environmental features. Typically, economically developed cities exhibit higher levels of social culture, infrastructure, public services, transportation systems, and environmental quality, so they are better at meeting the current demands of tourists. Economic development has become a crucial factor supporting tourism industry growth and attracting tourists. Therefore, the development of the tourism industry needs to be more integrated into the urban economic development system. Additionally, economic strength plays a vital role in bolstering the tourism industry’s resilience when facing risks, enhancing the industry’s ability to withstand adversity.

There are significant disparities in the construction of economic resilience among the ancient city tourist destinations (Table 2, Fig. 1). Zhengzhou consistently maintains a relatively high level of economic resilience with minor fluctuations. Luoyang’s economic resilience is at a moderate level, but it exhibits a positive development trend, ultimately achieving overall stability and growth. On the other hand, both Kaifeng and Anyang have long been characterized by low economic resilience, with Kaifeng’s economic resilience showing relatively significant fluctuations. As the provincial capital of Henan Province and a national transportation hub, Zhengzhou’s economic development is vibrant and exhibits robust vitality. Its industries are diversifying under stable development, which mitigates the economic fluctuations and risks associated with tourism development. Foreign direct investment, the growth of the tourism industry, and the immense consumer potential of residents have generated substantial economic benefits, greatly enhancing Zhengzhou’s economic resilience. Luoyang has also vigorously developed its tourism industry, while its sensitivity to economic fluctuations should be recognized.

By leading industrial transformation and upgrading through innovation-driven approaches, Luoyang has reduced its regional economic reliance on tourism and has used economic development to drive the growth of its tourism industry, leading to steady economic resilience. Kaifeng and Anyang, due to their relatively homogeneous economic development structures, have higher degrees of dependence on the tourism industry. Kaifeng, leveraging its cultural and transportation advantages, has made substantial efforts to develop its tourism industry, and considers it to be an essential component of its economic development. However, as tourism is a highly sensitive industry with significant external influences, Kaifeng’s economic resilience has not displayed significant growth and exhibits relatively substantial fluctuations. In the case of Anyang, despite its rich cultural heritage as an ancient capital, tourism development has been slow, and there has been limited synergy between tourism and economic development. Insufficient investment in tourism development has resulted in consistently low economic resilience in Anyang.

Social resilience serves as a cornerstone for the development of ancient city tourist destinations, as tourism development requires a favorable social environment. The primary goal of urban tourism development is to enhance the overall quality of life. Therefore, an attractive urban tourist destination includes factors such as a clean and aesthetically pleasing urban environment, a safe and stable security environment, and a leisurely and relaxed atmosphere, which are all significant attractions for tourists.

Overall, the social resilience of ancient city tourist destinations demonstrates a stable development pattern (Table 2). Among them, Zhengzhou exhibits a relatively high level of social resilience, while Luoyang, Kaifeng, and Anyang do not have particularly pronounced advantages in terms of social resilience. As the provincial capital of Henan Province, Zhengzhou has experienced rapid urbanization in recent years, with an urbanization rate as high as 73%. It boasts a well-developed social infrastructure, strong learning capabilities, and a robust governmental response to social risks. The local government continues to enhance urban social governance capabilities and has recently launched the “Three-Zero” Safe Creation Information Platform, which horizontally integrates information platforms for various working groups, including public security, petition handling, and emergency response systems. This platform ensures full coverage and real-time control of relevant data while conducting routine conflict resolution and safety hazard inspections. This approach has fostered a collaborative governance model and further strengthened the social order construction in Zhengzhou. In recent years, Luoyang has experienced rapid tourism industry growth, leading to continuous improvements in the supporting facilities and increased levels of urban infrastructure construction. However, this development has also brought significant changes to the local employment environment. Nevertheless, certain shortcomings have become increasingly evident due to insufficient urban planning in some areas, leading to urban expansion, overcrowding, and a lack of uniformity and aesthetics in the urban architecture. Additionally, the shortages of social services and public cultural facilities limit the cultural and leisure choices of residents, making it challenging to access essential social services. Narrow roads and heavy traffic flows negatively impact residents’ commuting efficiency, while social conflicts remain relatively prominent. Both Kaifeng and Anyang exhibit weak innovation-driven capabilities and relatively sluggish urban development. City management is relatively chaotic, resulting in their poor urban environments and unsightly urban appearances. Moreover, despite their population growth, social security levels have not kept pace, leading to relatively high urban unemployment rates. Therefore, the stability of the social environment is low, and there are no significant growth trends in social development.

Cultural resilience serves as the soul of ancient city tourist destinations, with historical relics embodying cultural significance and contemporary value, and providing the driving force for the development of tourism in ancient cities. Cultural resilience is determined not only by the quantity of cultural heritage and resources but, more importantly, by how the culture is revitalized and integrated into the urban historical and cultural elements in diverse forms. It involves keeping cultural heritage authentic while allowing it to come to life in various ways, thereby releasing cultural creativity, and becoming a modern cultural symbol that is embraced and cherished by the public.

Among the four cities, Luoyang and Zhengzhou have taken the lead in cultural resilience, although Zhengzhou’s cultural resilience has stagnated in recent years and even exhibited a slightly declining trend. Kaifeng and Anyang have experienced continuous negative growth in cultural resilience, reflecting a state of sluggish development. Luoyang is dedicated to building itself into an international cultural and tourist city, so it is deeply exploring its cultural resources and revitalizing its urban fabric. By leveraging its unique advantages as an ancient capital, Luoyang has harnessed the power of cultural heritage to promote the endogenous sustainable development of the city (Zhang and Wu, 2021). Amid the backdrop of the transition to an experience-based economy and the integration of culture and tourism, Luoyang has continually driven the transformation and development of its cultural and tourism industry. It is exploring immersive formats, such as the “Yellow River culture”, “Shengshi Sui and Tang”, “Funiu Mountain and Water”, “Peony”, and “industrial heritage”, creating a series of high-quality immersive experiential projects that endow cultural heritage with contemporary value. Luoyang is actively exploring new paths for the integration of culture and tourism, extending cultural tourism beyond traditional boundaries, and becoming a core attraction for the tourists visiting Luoyang. By fully tapping into its rich historical and cultural resources and implementing the concept of culture-driven tourism and tourism-promoting culture, Luoyang has provided robust cultural support for its modernization. In recent years, Zhengzhou has been seeking a path for cultural expansion in the economic mainstream. This effort has promoted the transformation and upgrading of the cultural industry, facilitating the deep integration of culture and tourism, and placing significant emphasis on the preservation, inheritance, and utilization of Yellow River culture. However, due to the initial lack of attention and rational planning, many historical relics have been damaged during the urbanization process. Zhengzhou has struggled to define its role in cultural tourism development and it lacks distinctive cultural symbols. The city lacks a strong intellectual property (IP) foundation and has failed to establish unique cultural landmarks, resulting in limited promotional effects. As a result, Zhengzhou’s cultural resilience has stagnated and even exhibited a slightly declining trend. Despite possessing abundant cultural and tourist resources, Kaifeng lags significantly behind Zhengzhou and Luoyang in terms of tourism development. This is partly due to Kaifeng’s inadequate awareness of the importance of promotion. High-quality cultural content not only needs to be embedded in tangible historical relics, exhibitions, and celebrations, but it also relies on continuous social construction and sustained promotion to permeate social spaces in the form of intangible spiritual or value expressions. Unfortunately, Kaifeng’s cultural tourism promotion lacks distinctiveness, emotional resonance, and long-term effectiveness (Liao and Zhang, 2023). Furthermore, Kaifeng’s inadequate exploration of its cultural tourism potential, homogeneous tourist attractions, insufficient tourism service facilities, weak brand awareness, and significant seasonal disparities in tourist numbers, all contribute to the weakening of its cultural resilience. Similarly, Anyang is a cultural ancient capital that has struggled to invigorate its cultural tourism, while the “Zheng-Bian-Luo” regional development policy has led to mutual promotion and complementary advantages among the other three major ancient capitals, resulting in a virtuous cycle of tourism development. However, Anyang remains stuck in the stage of ticket-driven tourism, with a limited range of tourism income sources. The associated industries have gradually contracted, and the tourism industry’s ability to drive sustainable development is insufficient. Anyang’s cultural tourism lacks distinctiveness, and the management experience is not sufficiently professional. The incomplete development of characteristic attractions and failure to highlight the cultural heritage and deep connotations have allowed the city’s cultural resilience to remain in a state of continuous decline.

The ecological carrying capacity represents an ecological threshold that determines the sustainable state of a tourist destination and significantly influences the continuous and healthy development of the tourism industry in ancient city tourist destinations. Urban tourism development is often accompanied by a substantial influx of tourists, leading to increased environmental pollution. Some tourist destinations prioritize short-term benefits, resulting in a lack of consistency between land use and construction planning, extensive land use in scenic areas, and a low intensity of land utilization. This exacerbates the conflicts between people and the environment in the region. The unregulated development of tourism has irreversible destructive impacts on the ecological environment. When tourism development and activities exceed the ecological carrying capacity threshold, the ecological environment cannot continuously support further tourism development, making sustainable tourism development difficult to achieve.

The overall ecological resilience of the four ancient city tourist destinations has shown a minor declining trend (Table 2). In comparing the four, Zhengzhou leads in ecological resilience, while the development trends in ecological resilience in Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Anyang are relatively stable, although they still lag significantly behind Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou’s tertiary industry has gradually surpassed the secondary industry, marking an important stage in industrial transformation and upgrading. Zhengzhou has gradually abandoned high-energy, high-emission, and highly polluting industries from the past, and now attaches great importance to environmental governance, emphasizing environmental protection. The city’s ecological system possesses self-regulation mechanisms, with the ability to recover and self-purify to some extent after damage. The development of urban tourism has not led to significant ecological environmental degradation in Zhengzhou. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic when economic and tourism activities were relatively stagnated, Zhengzhou’s ecological resilience experienced a minor rebound. Therefore, Zhengzhou consistently maintains a leading position in ecological resilience. The impacts of tourism development on urban ecology are relatively minor in Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Anyang. To adapt to the rapid growth of the tourism industry, the local governments in these cities have continually strengthened their environmental protection and governance efforts. They are committed to building an environment with perpetually green mountains and flowing waters, and have integrated environmental protection with economic and social development to enhance the quality of people’s living environment and their sense of happiness. Simultaneously, it is essential to establish mechanisms for the synergy between tourism and ecology, strengthen the research on environmental thresholds, early warning, and regulation, and improve the application of big data (Han et al., 2022). Even when there is a massive increase in the number of tourists in a short period, cities can scientifically respond in order to maintain the necessary order. Such efforts will help to reduce the gap with Zhengzhou and enhance ecological resilience.