China’s Convert Cultivated Land into Forest and Grassland policy has been gradually emphasized and promoted in the context of advancing China’s Western Development Program. Therefore, based on the perspective of localized practice in China, this study bridges the semantic level of information from the perspective of qualitative analysis and quantitative coding through the qualitative analysis of policy content and text similarity metrics. The study systematically reveals the diffusion characteristics of China’s Convert Cultivated Land into Forest and Grassland policy with respect to spatiotemporal evolution, thematic focus, and the degree of central policy diffusion. The goals are to clarify the mechanisms of policy evolution in a long time span, to analyze the implementation effects of the policy in accordance with local conditions, and thereby to make strong contributions to policy making. The results show five important aspects of the policy diffusion. (1) The policy followed a tendency characterized by “slow-rapid-stable” stages, and its diffusion process can be summarized into four phases. (2) By integrating thematic diffusion characteristics and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, this study reveals that the Grain for Green policy primarily exhibited a top-down “Hierarchical diffusion mode”. (3) By combining the national land cover change with the geographical distribution data of the Grain for Green policy, this study reveals that the policy has largely achieved its ecological goal of converting cultivated land. (4) Based on empirical research, this study illustrates the relationships between the number of policy issuances, the similarity between central and provincial policies, and the degree of policy diffusion, thereby enriching diffusion theory based on China's localized practical research. (5) This study suggests that national policies appear to reduce vertical pressure, thus inspiring the innovation of regional policy. Meanwhile, efforts should focus on developing distinctive industries to promote improvements in quality and efficiency.
In response to the demand for grassland vegetation monitoring, this study proposes a method based on the vegetation index and an automatic identification method of grassland vegetation coverage and height in the HSV color space. Hikvision smart ball machines and smartphones were used as fixed and mobile monitoring tools to conduct the experiments at the Sanqingyuan Nursery, Beijing Forestry University. Aiming at the time-series images from April to September 2021, five visible light vegetation indices, EXG, EXGR, NGRDI, GLI, and RGBVI, were comparatively analyzed in terms of vegetation coverage recognition. The experimental results show that the EXG index combined with the OTSU automatic threshold method has the best performance in extracting vegetation coverage, with an accuracy of 90% and an absolute error controlled within 3%; therefore, it was selected as the optimal algorithm. Second, this study converts the RGB color space into the HSV color space, realizes the accurate extraction of red color rings, and calculates the grass layer height accordingly. The experimental results show that the average error of this method is 2.3 cm, the maximum error is 6 cm, and the relative error is generally lower than 30%, indicating high reliability and accuracy. The results of this study provide an efficient and accurate automatic identification method for grassland vegetation monitoring and are expected to be widely used in grassland ecological protection and management.
This study focuses on the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration (PRDUA) as the research subject, incorporates the vulnerability assessment framework of the human-earth system to optimize the Landscape Ecological Risk (LER) index assessment model, and spatially visualizes the vulnerability degree, landscape disturbance intensity, and optimized LER of PRDUA in the representative years of 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022. The contribution of ecological land restoration to the evolution of LER is measured using the factor detector and interaction detector results of the Geodetector. Four restoration indicators are selected: ecological land area, proportion, cohesion, and AI (Aggregation Index). The results show that: (1) Between 2002 and 2022, the vulnerability in PRDUA exhibited a decreasing trend, albeit with notable spatial disparities. Areas of low vulnerability predominantly lie on the periphery of PRDUA, whereas high vulnerability zones are concentrated within its core. (2) The change in LER and vulnerability is highly consistent. Between 2002 and 2022, the high-risk areas show a shrinking trend and are mainly located in Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, and Shenzhen. Low-risk areas are mainly located at the edge of the PRDUA. (3) Based on the Geodetector, the contribution of single factor of ecological land restoration to LER change is low, and the contribution of two factor interaction is significantly enhanced, especially the cohesion and AI interactions contributed the most. In the period 2012-2022, the q-value of the explanatory power of the interaction between cohesion change and AI change reached 62.213%, which was the strongest explanation for changes in LER. These findings provide an innovative approach to understanding and mitigating LER in highly urbanized areas, and are also important for building ecological security patterns and promoting sustainable development.
In the context of dual-cycle development, improving the supply and demand capacity of ecosystem services is foundational to promoting high-quality economic development. Based on accounting for the supply and demand of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2000 to 2020, we analyze the characteristics of their temporal and spatial evolution and classify the ecological types of 41 cities in the YRD in 2020. The findings are as follows: (1) During the 20 years, the supply value of ecosystem services in the YRD has decreased, but the overall value is high. Moreover, the spatial distribution of ecosystem services shows a notable distribution pattern of “high in the south and low in the north.” Furthermore, the demand for ecological value has increased significantly, and the demand of the northeastern plains region is much higher than that of the southwestern mountainous region. (2) The spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem service supply-demand balance in the YRD region is pronounced, with a notable distribution pattern, mainly dominated by cities with balanced supply-demand that forms a high-value area centered on Shanghai-Suzhou and a low-value area dominated by Chizhou-Huangshan and Huabei-Bozhou, which have strong ecological and economic synergies. (3) By 2020, there were 2 ecological conservation cities, 3 ecological restoration cities, 29 ecological remodeling cities, and 7 ecological development cities in the YRD, indicating overall coordinated ecological and economic development.
The Loess Plateau is a densely populated, important ecological security frontier and a major grain- producing region in China. Conversely, it is highly susceptible to soil erosion. In response to soil erosion, a series of restoration technologies were launched, including afforestation, check dams, terraces and so on. Research on the restoration of the soil erosion is a key to regional sustainable development, and ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. In this research, we analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of soil erosion and compared the changes in runoff and sediment transportation in the whole watershed using spatial data, statistical data and GIS spatial analysis tools and RUSLE models. The main results include: (1) from 1990 to 2015, the soil erosion modulus in the Luoyugou Watershed dropped from 3706.2 t km-2 yr-1 to 2176.5 t km-2 yr-1, among which, the decline from 1990 to 1995 and 2000 to 2005 was the largest, with decrease of 827.8 t km-2 yr-1 and 480.7 t km-2 yr-1, respectively. (2) From 1988 to 2018, the M-K test of runoff and sediment transportation in the Luoyugou Watershed showed a downward trend. In the early period (1988-1998), the average annual runoff, annual sediment transportation, and sediment transportation per runoff were 2.23 million m3, 351000 t, and 182.2 kg m-3, respectively. In the later period (2008-2018), these values dropped to 852000 m3, 114000 t and 115.2 kg m-3, showing the decreases of 61.8%, 67.5% and 36.7%, respectively. (3) From 1988 to 2018, the runoff and sediment transportation showed a significant correlation with the annual rainfall in the Luoyugou Watershed. With the increase in rainfall, the runoff of Luoyugou increased rapidly in the early period (1988-1998) and the sediment transportation increased rapidly in the later period (2008-2018). The findings of this research provide reference for understanding the ecological and environmental effects of restoration technology and scientifically guiding ecological restoration practices.
China’s policy on cropland protection is a fundamental agricultural policy, which supports the state’s sustainable development goals of eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. We combined the SD and PLUS models to construct an integrated framework for simulating future areas of cropland and their spatial distribution. We simulated the spatial and temporal changes in cropland in Guangxi Autonomous Region under different scenarios in 2030, 2040 and 2050. The results showed that the simulation error for historical cropland areas using the SD model was ≤3%. The PLUS model results for the spatial distribution of cropland in Guangxi in 2020 was 0.92 for overall accuracy (OA), 0.77 for Kappa, and 0.33 for the figure of merit (FOM). Thus, the integrated model was suitable for simulating cropland in Guangxi under different future scenarios. Analyses of the landscape index, standard deviation ellipse and hot spots were performed to examine the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of Guangxi’s cropland under different future scenarios in more detail. They indicated that the area of cropland in Guangxi under different future scenarios gradually decreased, with the SSP245 scenario showing the greatest decrease in the area of cropland. Cropland in Guangxi showed a westward shift under different future scenarios, which was most rapid under the SSP245 scenario. cropland remained fragmented from 2000 to 2020, with fragmentation intensifying under different future scenarios, while cropland shifted to western rocky, desertified and poverty-affected areas. In sum, the results show that the SD-PLUS integrated model can predict the change trend of cropland in Guangxi under different future scenarios, which facilitates optimisation of the spatial allocation and planning of cropland and provides key data for implementing future cropland protection policies in Guangxi.
Clarifying the relationships among ecosystem regulating services (ESRs) in Beijing and understanding the influence of natural and socio-economic factors on these relationships can contribute to realizing ecological zoning and guiding informed policymaking based on trade-offs. This study evaluated water conservation (WC), soil conservation (SC), carbon sequestration (CS), wind erosion prevention (WEP), and analyzed the trade-offs of ESRs and its spatial driving factors using root mean square deviation (RMSD), and geographically weighted regression (GWR). Subsequently, the ecosystem management zones at the township scale in Beijing were divided from a trade-off perspective. The results showed that: (1) ESRs in Beijing generally showed synergistic relationships, and only WC and CS showed a weak trade-off. However, the analysis of local spatial relationships found that there were still trade-offs between different services in local regions. (2) The key driving factors affecting the trade-off intensity of ESRs included normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), elevation, temperature and nighttime light intensity. NDVI inhibited the trade-off between WC and SC throughout the region. Elevation inhibited the trade-off intensity between SC and WEP. Temperature inhibited the trade-off intensity between WC and WEP in the southern plains. Nighttime light exacerbated the trade-off between CS and WEP in the transitional regions between mountains and plains. (3) Based on the trade-off analysis, and considering human well-being, townships in Beijing could be classified into five zones: Comprehensive services enhancement zone, water conservation enhancement zone, soil conservation enhancement zone, carbon sequestration service enhancement zone, and wind erosion prevention enhancement zone. Each zone was characterized by distinct management objectives, trade-off driving factors, and management countermeasures.
Rapid urbanization significantly influences urban renewal and the construction of new spaces in metropolises within developing countries, particularly affecting the ecological patterns and security of urban landscapes. This study conducts an in-depth analysis of landscape ecological change indicators in Hangzhou from 1990 to 2020, summarizing typical driving models and formation mechanisms behind these changes while proposing optimization strategies. The findings indicate that since 1990, driven by urban expansion, Hangzhou’s landscape ecological pattern has experienced overall stability alongside localized drastic transformations, revealing three distinctly different stages around West Lake, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and across the Qiantang River. This evolution is primarily propelled by public service facilities, tourism development, industrial parks, landscape ecological corridors, and other forms of spatial expansion. Such processes reflect a comprehensive interplay among population urbanization dynamics, land use policies for urban areas, adjustments in administrative divisions, as well as the snowball effect stemming from capital-driven growth and wealth accumulation associated with new urban space development. The results presented herein serve as a representative case for understanding both the characteristics and driving forces behind changes in China’s urban landscape ecological patterns; they also hold significant implications for predicting and optimizing regulatory frameworks concerning spatial expansion policies in other nations and regions.
The Shaanxi section of the Weihe River Basin has undergone significant environmental changes in recent years, marked by pronounced spatiotemporal variations that pose substantial challenges for sustainable water resource management. Traditional evaluation methods often fall short in capturing the dynamic evolution and structural complexity of such systems. To address these limitations, this study adopts the Driving force-Pressure- State-Impact-Response-Management (DPSIRM) model, integrated with the coefficient of variation method, to comprehensively assess the Water Environmental Carrying Capacity (WECC) and its key influencing factors. Drawing on data from 41 districts and counties and employing Xi’an as a representative case study, the research reveals clear regional disparities and temporal trends in WECC. The results indicate an overall upward trend in carrying capacity, with upstream areas improving from Level III to Level I, middle reaches from Level IV to Level II, and downstream areas from Level V to Level III. The pressure and state subsystems were identified as having the most significant impact on WECC evolution. Meanwhile, indices associated with driving force, pressure, and management showed a rising trajectory, whereas state and response subsystems exhibited fluctuations. This study confirms the practicality and effectiveness of the DPSIRM framework in dynamically evaluating WECC, offering a robust scientific foundation for refined, region-specific water environment governance.
The rationality of the spatial configuration of public charging stations is the key to alleviating “range anxiety” of car owners and improving urban infrastructure services. This paper introduces OpenStreetMapnx (OSMnx) and takes Shanghai, the city with the highest number of new energy vehicles, as the research area. By considering the travel chain process of new energy vehicle owners, the study calculates the accessibility from vehicles to charging and from charging stations to service facilities, and identifies its spatial pattern and influencing factors. Research shows that: (1) During the travel period from residence to charging (R2C), the number of public charging stations in Shanghai increases as the time range expands, showing a spatial distribution pattern of gradually decreasing from the central urban area to the suburbs and a centripetal clustering trend; (2) The travel section from charging to service facilities (C2S), accessibility from charging stations to recreational facilities is the highest, followed by medical facilities, while accessibility to educational facilities is the lowest, showing a positive clustering distribution feature in space; (3) The impact of population distribution, economic foundation, and government role on the accessibility of different travel segments are different, but regional population distribution and social fixed assets investment have significant impacts on the accessibility of the whole travel chain of Shanghai public charging stations.
Based on the panel data of Chinese cities during 2013 and 2021, this study establishes a panel fixed-effect model and a panel threshold model to empirically investigate the effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development, as well as the mechanism, threshold characteristics and heterogeneity. The study reveals the following four points: (1) Digital inclusive finance can significantly drive urban green development, whose coverage breadth has more prominent promotional effect on urban green development compared to the usage depth and the digitization level. (2) In terms of the acting mechanism, the current effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development is mainly achieved through promoting economic development and environmental protection, while its promotion effect on social progress is not yet significant. (3) The impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green development varies depending on the agglomeration degree of urban digital economy and its geographical location. In non-agglomeration areas of digital economy and western regions, the promotion effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development is more obvious. (4) The promotion effect of digital inclusive finance on urban green development exhibits non-linear characteristics with different levels of urban economic development and digital inclusive finance development.
In advancing the high-quality development of the tourism industry, enhancing green total factor productivity in tourism (GTFPT) within the sector emerges as a critical strategy for mitigating vulnerabilities and a vital mechanism for strengthening tourism industry resilience. This study constructs analytical frameworks for both tourism industry resilience and GTFPT, and develops a dynamic spatial effect model to investigate the temporal and spatial influence mechanisms through which GTFPT promotes tourism resilience in China from 2012 to 2020. The findings reveal several key insights: (1) The resilience of China’s tourism industry follows a fluctuating upward trajectory, with marked regional disparities, particularly notable in the Southwest and Northwest regions, which benefit from latecomer growth advantages. (2) GTFPT in tourism significantly enhances industry resilience, with technological innovation and technology finance serving as positive moderating factors in this relationship. (3) GTFPT in tourism not only strengthens resilience at the local level but also generates substantial spatial spillover effects, benefitting neighboring provinces in both the short and long term, with the magnitude of these spillover effects surpassing direct impacts. These findings provide compelling evidence of the connection between green development and the sustainable, high-quality advancement of the tourism sector, offering valuable insights for boosting tourism resilience and fostering stronger regional spatial interactions.
The complex types and regional differences in tourist attractions mean that the evaluation and quantification of spatial structures require inter- and trans-disciplinary methodologies. Previous studies on spatial structure have mostly focused on the law of tourist flow and the development trend of tourism, emphasising humanistic and economic methods. Currently, the main challenge of spatial structure research is the integration of natural, economic, and social factors and scientifically supporting tourism planning and management. From the perspective of geographical distance and geometric space, this study developed a quantitative method for the spatial structure of tourist attractions, which combines a grade classification index, spatial relationship function, and influence factor analysis and selects cases for implementation in a geographic information system, with the advantages of visualisation, timely data update, and convenient guidance for practice. It provided new insights for understanding the sustainable management of tourist attractions from the intersection of geography and tourism science. The research results indicate that China has the highest number of 4A and 3A level tourist attractions, accounting for 80.9% of the total. The nearest neighbor ratio of scenic areas is less than 1, showing a significant spatial distribution clustering pattern, with four major scenic area clusters located in eastern and southern China. The Natural environment determines the spatial layout of scenic areas, with 51.46% of scenic areas distributed in regions below 200 m in altitude, and 95.10% of scenic areas located in areas with a slope of less than 15 degrees. 1A and 2A level scenic areas are mainly distributed in cold and dry regions, while 5A, 4A, and 3A level scenic areas are relatively concentrated with similar climatic characteristics. 5A level scenic areas have higher GDP, population density, and growth rates. The spatial structure of scenic areas is closely related to population distribution and economic development; southeastern China accounts for more than 90% of the national population and GDP, and this region has over 60% of A-level and above scenic areas.
This study explores the coordination mechanism between high-quality development and common prosperity in the tourism sector. Using methods such as the entropy weight TOPSIS method, coupling coordination model, kernel density, Dagum Gini coefficient, and decomposition analysis, the study empirically examines the spatio-temporal evolution of the coupled and coordinated relationship between high-quality tourism development and common prosperity in the Yellow River Basin from 2011 to 2019. The results show that both the levels of high-quality development and common prosperity in tourism increased during the research period, with common prosperity generally outpacing high-quality tourism development. Both indicators exhibit notable spatial heterogeneity. The coupling and coordination between high-quality tourism development and common prosperity has steadily improved, with a lagging pattern in high-quality tourism development as the predominant type. Furthermore, kernel density analysis reveals that the coupling and coordination level between the two systems has increased, while regional disparities have diminished. The overall Gini coefficient of the coupling coordination degree between high-quality tourism development and common prosperity fluctuates downward, with regional differences identified as the primary source of variation
This study incorporates both positive and negative tourism network attention into a comprehensive framework to examine their distinct effects on tourism development in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). In particular, this study uses a spatial econometric model to accurately examine the relationship between positive and negative tourism network attention and regional tourism development, including the impact of tourism network attention on local and neighboring areas. In addition, the framework also uses fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the path combination of network attention and other factors that affect varied stages of tourism development in each city of the YRD, and expounds its driving mechanism. Research findings reveal: (1) Positive tourism network attention has a “U-shaped” influence on regional tourism development. (2) Positive tourism network attention significantly promotes tourism development of both local and neighboring areas, while negative tourism network attention both hinders local tourism development and adversely affects neighboring areas via spillover effects. (3) Multiple paths for tourism development exist in the region, including four modes: Demand-facility driven, demand-resource-facility-transportation driven, word of mouth-transportation driven, and traffic-resource driven. Using the YRD as a case study, this research offers empirical evidence and theoretical insights into how positive and negative tourism network attention influence tourism development in the region.
The integration and coordinated development of culture and tourism industry is essential for realizing high-quality development in China’s northeast border regions. To assess this integration and driving mechanism, an evaluation index system has been established to quantify the coupling and coordination degree of these sectors at the provincial level from 2013 to 2022. Meanwhile, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis can identify driving factors and its mechanism. The findings indicate that, despite fluctuation and uneven development, the integration of cultural and tourism industry has generally demonstrated a gradual upward trend, remaining predominantly in preliminary-stage development. The degree of coupling and coordination is influenced by four primary factors: economic development level, transportation infrastructure quality, industrial structure optimization and advancement in the digital economy. The outbreak of the global public health crisis has temporarily weakened the impacts of economic development, transportation infrastructure, and the digital economy on the integration process. However, as economic recovery continues to unfold, these factors have been anticipated to exert a sustained and significant influence on facilitating further integration and coordinated development within the cultural and tourism industry thereby accelerating high-quality development in the Northeast border regions. Based on these conclusions, this study proposes measures that focus on enhancing the integration and development of culture and tourism industry from three perspectives, namely integrated model innovation, transportation network enhancement, and industrial structure optimization.
Sport tourism is emerging as a key focus in China’s tourism development, supported by investments in infrastructure, sports events, and promotional efforts. Hainan, with its unique geographic advantages and abundant tourism resources, are prioritized by central and local governments, to establish Haikou, Sanya, and Wanning as key sport tourism hubs. However, research on evaluating regional sport tourism from an industrialist perspective remains limited. This study adopts a qualitative research approach, using semi-structured interviews with middle and senior managers from sport tourism enterprises in Hainan. These interviews provide an in-depth evaluation of Hainan’s sport tourism industry from the perspective of industry stakeholders. Data coding through Nvivo software identifies twelve critical dimensions: Brand, culture, business ethics, infrastructure, location, market, natural resources, policy, product, tournaments, funding, and talent. By analyzing these dimensions both horizontally and vertically, the study assesses the industry’s current status and challenges, offering recommendations in three key areas: ① Government: Improve transportation infrastructure and establish dedicated management departments. ②Enterprises: Focus on strategic positioning, effective marketing, and sustainable development through collaboration. ③ Public-Private collaboration: Strengthen coordination between government and enterprises to promote integrated and coordinated sport tourism development across multiple cities.
The cultural elements are the core of theme parks, which gradually interact with people as unique cultural space landscapes. The expression of culture is pivotal in determining the quality of a theme park and significantly affects the tourist experience. From the perspective of the production of culture on display, this paper explores the cultural practices of theme parks and tourists’ appeal through field research, content analysis, and grounded theory. The research findings indicate that theme parks are characterized by authenticity, interaction, participation, and readability. They rely on scene restoration, story narration, service facilities, cultural characteristics and tourist interaction to facilitate cultural engagement. Content analysis shows that tourists prioritize amusement attractions, performances, and the overall tourism experience. When theme parks serve as venues for leisure and entertainment, tourist appeal reflect in five aspects: Theme park products, tourism services, storytelling, social interaction, and immersive experiences. Meanwhile, these appeals drive the cultural reproduction within theme parks. This study expands the application scope of cultural engagement in theme parks, elucidates the evolving demands of visitors, and provides insights for theme parks to enhance their storytelling capabilities and improve tourist experiences.
The tourist’s sense of place plays a pivotal role in the protection and renovation of historical districts, and it is an important driving force for the development, evolution and spatial reconstruction of historic districts. This study examines the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of tourists through the framework of sense of place (SoP), using Yongqingfang—a representative historical district in Guangdong—as a case study. Additionally, it proposes a model to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the generation of sense of place. The findings indicate that perception of place activities and the perception of place environment positively influence tourists’ positive emotional responses and their behavioral intentions. Based on the analysis of the results of hypothesis testing, the study also tested the mediating effects of positive and negative place emotions. It was determined that tourists generate place emotions in their cognition and experience of a place, and these emotions subsequently influence their behavior intentions. The study provides theoretical guidance for the choice of development pathways, renovation and reconstruction of historical districts from the perspective of the generation mechanism of tourists’ sense of place.
The development of rural tourism not only plays a crucial role in driving the high-quality growth of destination economies but also significantly affects the livelihoods and well-being of residents in these areas. The objective of this study is to evaluate the well-being of residents in rural tourism destinations. With the Rice Dream Space in Shenyang as a case study, this study selects the residents from 18 administrative villages in the street where the scenic area is located as the research subjects. By conducting field surveys, 204 valid questionnaires were collected. Then, the SPSS 26.0 was employed to analyze these questionnaires, aiming to provide an in-depth understanding of the residents’ well-being in the context of rural tourism development. It establishes an indicator system based on four dimensions: Economy, politics, culture, and environment, and employs factor analysis to evaluate the livelihood well-being of residents comprehensively. The findings indicate that the level of livelihood and well-being among residents in rural tourism destinations is relatively high. Among the four dimensions, the cultural aspect received the highest average evaluation, while the economic component had the lowest. Based on the specific context of the research area, this study also offers countermeasures and suggestions aimed at enhancing the livelihood and well-being of residents in rural tourism destinations.
Rural tourism plays a crucial role in driving the sustainable development of rural economies. With the rise of the digital economy, user-generated content (UGC) videos on platforms such as TikTok have become a significant factor influencing consumer decision-making, creating new opportunities for the growth of rural tourism. Using the TikTok app as the research platform, this study examines the relationship between UGC short videos, tourists’ intentions to engage in rural tourism, and their perception of destination image. Specifically, it explores the impact of UGC short videos on tourists’ willingness to participate in rural tourism and the mediating role of destination image perception. The findings indicate that UGC short videos positively influence tourists’ willingness to engage in rural tourism. Destination image perception mediates this relationship, shaping tourists’ decisions through cognitive and emotional image perceptions. Based on these findings, this paper recommends rural tourism destination managers enhance promotional strategies and improve destination image perception through UGC short video content.
Agricultural heritage tourism resources, represented by ecological vulnerability and cultural sensitivity, require careful stewardship. Tourists’ environmentally responsible actions are vital for preserving both the natural and cultural environment of these destinations, ensuring their sustainability. According to “cognition-emotion-behavior theory” and the hierarchy model of tourism experience, this study constructs a conceptual model between tourists’ environmental fit, place attachment and pro-environmental behavior. Structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap method are employed for empirical testing. Results indicate that: (1) Function fit has a significant positive effect on tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors. (2) Service fit also has a significant positive effect on tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors. (3) Place attachment mediates the relationship between environmental fit and pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, recommendations are offered for managing agricultural heritage tourism destinations to cultivate tourists’ sense of functional fit and service fit and to strengthen their place attachment.
The conservation of agricultural heritage systems is of great significance. Studies have shown that artistic experiences, such as calligraphy and music, influence tourists’ cognition, emotions, and behaviors during their visits. This study examines the influence of artistic experiences on tourists’ willingness to participate in conservation efforts, utilizing the Huzhou Mulberry-Dyke and fish pond system—a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System—as a case study. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response model and previous research findings, we developed a conceptual framework to evaluate how tourists’ artistic experiences impact their willingness to conserve agricultural heritage systems. A measurement index system was established, and data were collected from 434 questionnaires through field research. The model was refined based on the results of data analysis. The findings indicate that (1) Artistic experiences positively influence the development of tourists’ conservation willingness; (2) These experiences affect conservation willingness by mediating flow experiences and overall satisfaction. Additionally, artistic experiences significantly influence tourists’ consumption tendencies, fostering protective consumption behaviors that enhance their willingness to participate in conservation efforts for agricultural heritage systems.
Residents constitute the core stakeholders in tourist destinations such as traditional villages, with their subjective well-being serving as a pivotal determinant for the sustainable development of tourist destinations and the enhancement of tourism quality and efficiency. Wulong Village of Langzhong City is chosen as a case site, and an index system through literature analysis is constructed, anchored in social exchange theory. Some mathematical methods are utilized for a comprehensive analysis of residents’ subjective well-being level, influence factors and the relation between subjective well-being and pro-tourism behavior. The findings reveal that: (1) Both the explicit driving factors and the recessive association factors demonstrate positive correlations with residents’ subjective well-being and pro-tourism behavior. Residents exhibit a pronounced focus on future-oriented dimensions, with the spiritual facets of these dimensions directly shaping their pro-tourism behavioral tendencies; (2) The weight values of explicit driving factors correspond to the ranking of measurement index values, whereas coefficient of variation values show significant fluctuations, exerting a substantial moderating effect on pro-tourism behaviors; (3) Recessive associative factors exert both significant positive and negative impacts on residents’ subjective well-being and pro-tourism behaviors, while educational attainment functions as an explicit or implicit transmission mechanism, influencing the emotional cohesion underlying residents’ pro-tourism behaviors; (4) Residents’ subjective well-being and pro-tourism behaviors across four explicit driving dimensions (material well-being, livelihood security, self-worth, and future expectations) significantly and positively influence pro-tourism behaviors. Additionally, senses of gain act as intermediary drivers for pro-tourism behaviors, generating positive supportive effects that facilitate local tourism development.
Ethnic villages have become an integral part of rural tourism, celebrated for their folk culture and landscapes. With a case study of the Guilin Longji Rice Terrace Scenic Spot, this paper examines the impact of internal and external driving forces on tourism development in ethnic villages. It presents a dynamic mechanism model that elucidates the interplay between these factors and their impact on tourism growth. The findings indicate that tourism development in ethnic villages depends on seven main driving factors: the endowment of tourism resources, the aspirations and demands of villagers, the management and operation of enterprises, government support, market demands, competitive dynamics, and media exposure. Particularly, the driving factors of tourism development in ethnic villages present mutual influence, interpenetration, and interdependence characteristics. In light of these findings, the paper concludes with recommendations aimed at promoting the development of ethnic village tourism and contributing to rural revitalization.
Regional clustering has become a distinctive feature of the homestay industry in terms of spatial distribution in many countries. However, identifying and quantifying the advantageous locations suitable for the agglomeration of the homestay industry at the micro-scale is still in the exploratory stage. Therefore, with the support of multi-source data and the spatial entropy weight superposition method, drawing on concepts from physics such as gravitational and magnetic fields, and based on relevant location theories, the environmental field strength and its quantitative model are proposed to evaluate micro-locations suitable for homestay development. Finally, a case study was conducted in Wuyuan, China. The results show that the homestay industry is mainly distributed along traffic lines and rivers, which is greatly affected by tourism resources and rural settlements, and the degree of agglomeration is gradually increasing; The environmental field strength is closely related to the accessibility of infrastructure and the development of tourism resources, and the overall structure tends to be networked, polycentric and “core-periphery”; there is a positive linear correlation between the distribution of homestay industry and environmental field strength. This study provides a basis for optimising decision-making related to the sustainable planning and site-selection of tourism destinations and the homestay industry.
