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  • Tourism Supply Chain
    Wang Zhongsheng, Li Yunpeng
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 461-476. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20260065

    As the tourism industry undergoes transformation and upgrading, tourism supply chains (TSC) and tourism distribution channels (TDC) have gradually become key factors for enterprises in enhancing their core competitiveness. However, the academic community has yet to reach consensus on the conceptual boundaries and interrelationship of these two constructs, limiting the capacity of theory in guiding practice. This study adopts a systematic literature review approach, analyzing 119 articles from leading international journals. Through systematic synthesis and in-depth analysis, it clarifies the evolutionary trajectories of TSC and TDC, examines their conceptual similarities and differences, critically appraises the scholarly schools within each field, and develops an integrative theoretical framework grounded in general systems theory. The study yields two key findings: (1) TSC and TDC exhibits a hierarchical nested “system-subsystem,” where TSC operates as a complete operational system spanning from resource integration to value realization, while TDC functions as a boundary subsystem that connects the system with its external environment; the two achieve value creation through functional interdependence and boundary coordination. (2) In the context of digitalization, the TSC and TDC are deeply coupled, forming three value chain models: supply-push, demand-pull, and adaptive co-creation. They are applicable to different resource endowments, technological environments, and market characteristics. Among these, the adaptive co-creation model represents an emerging trend in which industry organization shifts from linear structures toward ecosystem-based arrangements. This study bridges the disciplinary divide between operations management and marketing management in tourism research, extends the explanatory scope of tourism supply chain theory, and offers practical guidance for tourism firms in aligning supply chain development with distribution channel management.

  • Tourism Supply Chain
    Rabia Turson, Song hua, Guan Zhenyu
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 477-491. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20260080

    In the context of the digital age, the essence of tourism supply chain integration has evolved from traditional efficiency-oriented linear process collaboration into a a digital-driven process of order reconstruction and value symbiosis. Based on a bibliometric analysis of core domestic and international literature using CiteSpace, this study systematically traces the evolution trajectory of research hotspots in this field. By integrating network embeddedness theory and institutional work theory, it constructs an analytical framework for digital tourism supply chain integration. The study holds that the deep foundation of digital tourism supply chain integration is the network embeddedness structure reshaped by digital technologies, while its promotion mechanism relies on the institutional work deployed by multiple actors to cope with structural constraints. Together, these elements form a dynamic loop of “embedded structure-institutional work-re-embedded structure”. The core theoretical contribution of this study are threefold: it elevates integration to an analyzable theoretical object of “structure-practice-order”, it reveals the coupling driving mechanism between “structural conditions” and “institutional practices” and it expands the understanding of integration efficacy to the generation and reproduction of relational, structural, and institutional capital, thereby systematically elucidating how digital tourism supply chain integration fosters long-term resilience and sustainability within industrial networks. This study provides a new analytical lens for understanding industrial ecosystem governance in the digital era and proposes directions for contextualized comparative research on embedded structures and institutional work.

  • Tourism Supply Chain
    He Shaocong, Li Yunpeng, Zhang Jiaxin
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 492-504. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20260103

    In the context of digitalization, online attention is widely regarded as a leading indicator for tourism demand forecasting. Existing studies have primarily focused on the macro-level correlations between online attention and tourist flows at the scenic spot or destination level. However, studies on how the online attention of service providers within the tourism supply chain drives tourist volume, particularly regarding its leading predictive mechanism, remain insufficient. To this end, this study aims to explore the dynamic leading impact of online attention towards tourism accommodation and catering suppliers on scenic spot tourist volume from a micro-supplier perspective, integrating Signaling Theory and Peer Effects. Using the Jiuzhaigou scenic area as a case study, data regarding to accommodation and catering suppliers were collected from social media platforms during both peak and off-peak seasons, and a comprehensive online attention index was constructed via principal component analysis (PCA). Through cross-correlation function analysis on multiple data sources, the findings reveal three main points: (1) during the peak season, changes in the growth rate of tourism accommodation suppliers' online attention significantly lead changes in the growth rate of scenic spot tourist volume, with a lead period of approximately 18-19 days. (2) A rapid increase in suppliers’ online attention tends to decelerate the subsequent acceleration of tourist flow growth, but this negative correlation is not significant during the off-peak season. (3) This leading relationship demonstrates statistical robustness, indicating that dynamic changes in supplier-level online attention during the peak season can effectively predict short-term tourist flow trends. The study uncovers the micro-mechanism through which online signals influence tourism demand via social diffusion, providing theoretical foundations and practical insights for refined management and proactive decision-making in the tourism supply chain.

  • Tourism Supply Chain
    Liu Linyan, Chen Jiayi
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 505-517. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20260097

    Driven by the global “dual carbon” strategy aimed at achieving a deep decoupling between value creation and carbon emissions, digital technology has emerged as a pivotal engine for resource optimization and low-carbon evolution in exhibition supply chains. This research aims to reveal the underlying mechanism by which digital empowerment facilitates a marginal reduction in carbon intensity within these complex service networks. Integrating the Technology-Value-Organization (T-V-O) framework, the study adopts a longitudinal case study methodology to conduct an in-depth tracing of the multi-decadal digital transformation trajectory of the Canton Fair. The results indicate that: (1) the low-carbon evolution of the supply chain is fundamentally a dynamic game between “pull” and “resistance” forces. Specifically, low-carbon performance dividends gained by nodes and the green infrastructure empowerment provided by the lead firm constitute the core pull factors, while structural resistance is rooted in long-standing, carbon-intensive path dependencies, with organizational inertia exerting significant stage-specific moderation on the transition process. (2) The study further identifies that digital transformation facilitates this evolution by leveraging information transparency, cost-offsetting, and collaborative learning effects. By activating proxy paths such as material decoupling through paperless operations and business travel substitution via virtual-real mapping practices, digital technology enables “digital dividends to offset green premiums”,thereby establishing economic rationality for green practices. Consequently, this process drives the transition of the supply chain governance paradigm from “isolated node response” to “full-chain digital-intelligent synergy”. These findings not only extend the organizational application boundaries of technology adoption theory but also provide universal mechanistic insights and strategic guidelines for achieving sustainable, high-quality development and carbon-neutral collaborative governance in global service-oriented supply chains.

  • Tourism Supply Chain
    Liu Yufei, Li Yunpeng
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 518-532. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20250452

    Rural homestays, as key vehicles for rural revitalization, play an important role in stimulating local development and catering to diversified tourism demand. However, field evidence shows that although multi-actor cooperation is often easy to initiate, it is difficult to sustain. In several cases, collaboration weakened over time despite policy support, community participation and benefit-sharing arrangements, suggesting that existing studies have not fully addressed the root causes of symbiotic instability. To fill this research gap, drawing upon symbiosis theory and the supply chain collaboration perspective, this study adopts a dual-case approach and develops a “motivation-process-outcome” framework to examine how symbiotic relationships between a rural homestay and its local community are formed and sustained. The results show that: (1) symbiosis is built upon member relationships, governance mechanisms and sharing logic, and manifests in two distinct modes-“institutionalized, platform-oriented” and “localized, relationship-oriented”; (2) the formation process follows a dynamic evolution path of “resource endowment-resource bricolage-supply chain collaboration-symbiosis”, yet with divergent trajectories across the two modes; (3) supply chain collaboration in rural settings features a dual logic of vertical institutional integration and horizontal relational embeddedness. More importantly, the stability of symbiosis hinges on whether villagers and village collectives can embed themselves as value-providing nodes within the supply chain ecosystem and form collaborative mechanisms with government and market actors. This study extends the application of supply chain collaboration to socially embedded service ecosystems and advances the understanding of how homestay-community symbiosis emerges and stabilizes for future rural tourism governance.

  • Tourist Behavior
    Zheng Wenjuan, Xu Shaogui, Lin Dongying, Lu Yingying, Zheng Wenting
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 544-559. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20250422

    Nowadays, with less outdoor time and yet more screen time, children are seen a changing interactive pattern with nature. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this process and provided a time window for studying the differences between rural and urban children in nature-deficit disorder. By introducing rural and urban perspectives, this study does iconographic analysis of 111 post-pandemic drawings themed Nature and Me by children in fourth-grade in F City, conducts triangulation by doing semi-structured interviews with selected students and teachers, and follows an analysis framework of tracing the origin of rural-urban differences, corroborative data collection, dual impact analysis, and stratified intervention design. Findings reveal the following: (1) urban and rural children show a gap in nature disconnection. For urban children, though they eager to contact with nature, but with limited access, they exhibit physical alienation from nature. However, for rural children, who have access to nature but lack willingness to embrace it, they show onsite alienation from nature. (2) The drawings by rural and urban children show significant differences in visual representation, with drawings by urban children displaying deficient natural elements, simplified self-images, and homogenized emotional expressions, whereas drawings by rural children demonstrating emotional disconnection despite richer natural elements. (3) Psychological impacts are heterogeneous, with urban children presenting narrowed natural cognition and psychological regression, while rural children maintaining higher psychological resilience due to regular nature contact; (4) A three-tier intervention framework of immersion, education, and healing is constructed to provide systematic response strategies for children with nature-deficit disorder. This study provides micro-level evidence, theoretical insights, and practical recommendations for understanding urban-rural heterogeneity in nature-deficit disorder in children.

  • Tourist Behavior
    Xiong Yi, Zhang Jin
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 560-573. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20260025

    Differences in tourists’aesthetic experience between urban and rural landscapes promote tourism flow and spatial interaction between urban and rural areas. Taking three typical urban-rural tourism spatial combinations, namely Shanghai-Songjiang, Suzhou-Zhouzhuang, and Hangzhou-Anji, as cases, this study adopts an integrated method of UGC text analysis, field behavioral observation and grounded theory. Based on the “space-cognition-practice” paradigm, an analytical framework is constructed to explore the internal mechanism of tourists’aesthetic psychological transfer and transformation across spaces. The results show that: (1) urban aesthetic characteristics (symbolic consumption, cultural refinement, ecological ornamental value) and rural aesthetic characteristics (natural authenticity, cultural originality, ecological productivity) are the triggering factors for tourists’aesthetic psychological transfer and transformation across urban-rural spaces; (2) Aesthetic imagery acts as the core mediator connecting urban-rural aesthetic stimuli and behavioral responses through the three-dimensional mechanism of “perceptual coding-meaning grafting-emotional attachment”;(3) In urban-rural spatial interaction, the transfer of tourists’aesthetic psychology follows the progressive path of “perceptual trigger-imagery conduction-emotional precipitation”, while the transformation undergoes the evolutionary process of “cognitive processing-behavioral decision-emotional attachment”, forming an inherent logical connection from quantitative accumulation to qualitative leap; (4) This mechanism presents significant scenario adaptability. Due to differences in aesthetic characteristics, the three urban-rural interactive spaces have formed three dominant evolutionary paths of aesthetic psychology: emotional attachment, cultural exploration, and practical participation. This study fills the research gap of aesthetic psychology in urban-rural spaces, extends the application scenarios of the “space-cognition-practice” paradigm in tourism research, and provides theoretical references and practical pathways for the high-quality development of culture and tourism as well as urban-rural integrated development..

  • Ecotourism
    Wang Songhai, Wang Fuyuan
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 618-635. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20250477

    Ecological restoration and recreational utilization of abandoned industrial and mining areas are crucial for territorial spatial optimization. This study classifies the restoration and utilization modes into wetland parks, comprehensive green spaces, and mountain parks. Using remote sensing interpretation, landscape indices, the InVEST model, the ESV and ESTD methods, we analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution and landscape ecological coupling benefits of these areas in Xuzhou City from 2000 to 2023. Results indicate that: (1) the number and area of abandoned zones exhibited an “initial gentle growth, mid-term acceleration, and late-stage stabilization” trajectory. The spatial evolution shifted from urban agglomeration to suburban expansion. Comprehensive green spaces clustered in urban areas, wetland parks concentrated in northern subsidence zones, and mountain parks converged in urban and eastern suburban regions. (2) The landscape pattern transitioned from fragmented and irregular to continuous and balanced, with enhanced diversity and heterogeneity, reflecting a stable and rational evolution. (3) Habitat quality was dominated by low-to-medium-grade patches. The ESV showed an initial gentle start, mid-term explosive growth, and late-stage high-level stabilization. High-value areas radiated outward from urban centers, while the ESV structure transitioned from climate regulation by woodlands to hydrological regulation by water bodies. (4) Ecosystem services evolved from trade-offs between provisioning and other services to full-dimensional synergy. However, ecological benefit differentiation remained significant: wetland parks showed high-value synergy in core waters; comprehensive green spaces exhibited early local trade-offs and later synergistic gains through optimized vegetation and facilities; mountain parks achieved stable synergy between cultural and other services after overcoming early marginal compression from urban development. The study proposes differentiated restoration strategies, providing theoretical and practical references for similar resource-based regions.

  • Ecotourism
    Hu Kexiang, Zhang Hongfei, Tan Zhixiong
    ECOTOURISM. 2026, 16(3): 654-667. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20250350

    Clean energy transportation is an important part of promoting the tourism industry to respond to the national “dual carbon” goals and achieve low-carbon transformation. This paper comprehensively employs the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model, Word2vec model and BERT model to construct an integrated topic mining model suitable for research on the application of clean energy transportation systems in tourism scenarios. Based on core data from domestic and international literature databases and the incoPat patent database, this paper quantitatively analyzes relevant research achievements from 2001 to 2024, summarizes the evolution path of research topics in this field, analyzes research frontiers through three-dimensional indicators of novelty, attention and influence, and identifies current research shortcomings. The results show that research in this field presents clear phased evolution characteristics: the germination period (2001—2017) focuses on the layout of clean energy transportation infrastructure and exploration of business models; the deepening period (2018—2021) centers on user behavior and multi-technology adaptation; the systematization period (2022—2024) shifts to ecological collaboration of clean energy transportation vehicles application and multi-modal transportation network integration. On this basis, the evolution logic driven by the two main lines of “user perception-network collaboration” is further refined. In response to the research shortcomings of collaborative faults, institutional absence and empirical weakness revealed by quantitative analysis, the future research path is proposed from three dimensions of technological breakthroughs, institutional innovation and behavior guidance, in order to provide overall theoretical support and forward-looking research direction guidance for the clean transformation of tourism transportation systems with vehicles as the core.

  • Yang Chunyu, Hong Huanzhou, You Biying, Chen Ziyuan
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(3): 359-379. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20230035

    Scientific measurement and examination of the “spatial equilibrium” evolution of tourism ecosystem has important theoretical and practical value for promoting the coordinated and sustainable development of tourism economy and ecological environment in world natural heritage sites. Based on the paradigm of system science and axiomatic thinking, this study attempts to construct the connotation, characteristics and axiomatic definition of “spatial equilibrium” evolution of tourism ecosystem. Taking four world natural heritage sites in Guizhou as research samples, the evolution and influencing factors of “spatial equilibrium” of tourism ecosystem were analyzed by using system dynamics (SD) model, pressure-state-response (PSR) model, entropy weight method and geographical detector. The study found that: (1) The evolution of " spatial equilibrium " of tourism ecosystem refers to the ideal state in which the regional tourism ecosystem acts on the whole through its own positive and negative feedback when it is disturbed by local and affordable disturbances, and regulates and compensates through the system regulation mechanism, and finally forms a benign interaction between tourism development and regional nature, culture and human living environment. (2) The basic characteristics of “spatial equilibrium” of tourism ecosystem are relativity and dynamics, short-term “oscillation” and long-term “cycle”. (3) Through the improved axiomatic definition of tourism ecosystem “spatial equilibrium” evolution, three evolutionary states of tourism ecosystem “spatial equilibrium” can be deduced, including equilibrium state, overload state and lag state. (4) From 2000 to 2020, the evolution and development of “spatial equilibrium” of tourism ecosystem in the four case areas showed different spatial and temporal evolution characteristics, regional differences and patterns. (5) The level of tourism pressure, the level of tourism economy, the state of tourism environment and the regulation of tourism policy are the common influencing factors of the evolution of “spatial equilibrium” of tourism ecosystem. Among them, the level of tourism economy is the primary factor in each case and year. The level of tourism pressure and the state of tourism environment have decreased their influence over time, and the influence of tourism policy regulation has gradually increased.

  • National Cultural Park and Heritage Tourism
    Zou Tongqian, Qiu Ziyi, Miao Hui
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(3): 394-407. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20230001

    Building high standard protection system of cultural heritage is necessary to implement the Strategy of Building China into a strong Socialist Culture Country. The birth of the National Cultural Park provides an opportunity to optimize cultural heritage protection system. Based on the current development of cultural heritage protection system, this paper analyzes the key causes and mechanisms of its dysfunction role through literature review, and explores the reform path of the cultural heritage protection system based on domestic and foreign experience. The findings are as follows: (1) The development process of our cultural heritage protection system can be divided into three stages: cultural relics preservation centered stage, multi-type protection system forming stage, and upgrading and reform stage. (2) Due to the lack of unified top-level design, the cultural heritage protection system has some limitations in the protection concept, type system, management system and guarantee mechanism, which seriously affects the protection effect. (3) In order to improve the governance efficiency of the cultural heritage protection system, four reform paths are proposed: Reshape the protection concept based on the principles of integrity protection and compatibility; Reconstructing classification system with the National Cultural Park as the leader; Optimize the management system on the premise of unifying the organization; Upgrade the protection system with the support of professional talents, finance and law. This paper provides the direction and suggestions for improving the top-level design of the cultural heritage protection system.

  • National Cultural Park and Heritage Tourism
    An Zhuolin, Zhou Shangyi
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(3): 408-419. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220160

    One of the purposes of national culture parks in China is to construct national identity. Based on the concepts of superorganism culture and organism culture, in conjunction with Heidegger’s concept of “Entbergung”, this paper analyzes how people’s identities on cultural heritages in the Grand Canal National Culture Park transform into their national identities by using the method of focus group and phenomenological reflection. Two conclusions are drawn from this study. Firstly, the national identity in the promotion of Grand Canal Cultural Heritages is a holistic culture, super-organic culture. Because of the “absence” of history and the “absence” of life, people are in the situations of “Verborgenheit”, and are obscured from understanding the cultural significance of cultural heritage. Secondly, this framework based on phenomenology can guide people to connect the superorganistic national identities with themselves in two ways: introspection based on body, and introspection based on rationality. On the basis of the two kinds of introspection, and by the processes of “Entbergung”, people can derive national cultural symbols that can be understood and identified. The finding of this paper provides implications for how to shape national identities in the constructions of national culture parks.

  • National Cultural Park and Heritage Tourism
    Zheng Qunming, Hong Xinyan
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(3): 438-452. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20230008

    Tourists are important witnesses and experiencers in the process of inscribing a destination as a world cultural heritage. Based on cognitive-emotional theory, user generated content (UGC) web text data in Quanzhou, content analysis methods were used to explore the differences in tourists’ perceptions of the images of World Heritage Sites before and after the successful inscription, and to reveal the impact mechanism of the inscription on tourists’ perceived images. The study found that: compared with the pre-inscription period, tourists’ perceptions of cultural values such as history, religion and art deepened after the inscription, yet their perceptions of natural attractions weakened; tourists’ perception of the image of World Heritage Sites became clearer, and the original brand and status of World Heritage Sites are more recognized; though tourists’ emotional attitudes toward World Heritage Sites has changed not much in general after the inscription, they have higher expectations for the cultural status, service quality, tourism environment, urban development of the World Heritage Sites. Cultural destinations can trigger the media’s external drive and cultural internal drive through the application, which can promote the change of tourists’ cognitive image and emotional image of the destination, and then promote the strengthening of tourists’ brand identity, service value identity, cultural identity, local identity and emotional identity. The analysis of the impact of the successful inscription on tourists' perceived image can provide a reference for the construction and enhancement of tourism images of similar destinations.

  • Research Tourism
    Zhou Tongxin, Liu Jun
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(3): 466-482. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220165

    Public education is an essential obligation of nature reserves. However, nature reserves in China are facing an insufficiency in the development of educational tourism products. A qualitative research method is used to explore the production mechanism of educational tourism product in Danxia Mountain, Guangdong Province. The research shows that: (1) The procedure of producing educational tourism products are divided into four steps: knowledge production, knowledge transformation, curriculum arrangement and design and operation of the educational tourism products. The formulation of this procedure is based on multiple internal and external factors such as the resources of the nature reserves, the internal logic of knowledge production and transformation, market demand and various policies and standards. (2) Under the guidance of public education, a production pattern has formed in Danxia Mountain, which dominated with the production of educational tourism products related to natural science knowledge and facilitated with the production of educational tourism products related to practical knowledge. (3) A structure of “core-surrounding-periphery” is formed in educational tourism industry. The interaction and cooperation among the different circles support the production of higher quality products, and contribute to the sustainable improvement of local educational tourism industry. The research shows that the logic of knowledge production and transformation, relevant policy standards, and the ability of the participants make the educational tourism product unique from other kinds of tourism products, Such uniqueness are the inner forces for the formation of the production mechanism of educational tourism products. This study systematically summarizes the practice of the educational tourism in Danxia Mountain. It helps to reveal the interactive relationship between various elements in the production process, based on the perspective of participants. Futhermore, this artical clarifies the specificity of educational tourism and its structural impact on the tourism industry in the nature reserves.

  • Research Tourism
    Zheng Wenjuan, Zhang Lin
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(3): 510-525. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220167

    Based on the theory of attitude-behavior-context, this paper divides the environ- mental attitude into two levels: preservation and utilization, on this basis, we introduce subjective happiness variables, and focus on the mediating effects of environmental behavior on the relationship between natural connectedness and environmental attitude. The results of 332 valid questionnaires analysis showed that there was no significant relationship between children’s attitude to environment utilization and their natural connectedness, environmental behavior and happiness. Natural connectedness and environmental behavior are all precursor factors of children’s happiness. Environmental behavior plays a partial mediating role between natural connectedness and children’s happiness, and environmental behavior plays a complete mediating role between environmental preservation attitude and children’s happiness. Environmental protection attitudes and environmental behavior play a chain mediating role between natural connectedness and children’s happiness. Based on the above conclusions, society, schools and parents should increase the time and opportunities for children’s contact with nature and outdoor activities through environmental education courses and study tours for children, cultivate children’s attitude of environmental protection, enrich children’s ways of contact with nature, enhance children’s sense of happiness. The model and related conclusions in this paper enrich and expand the study of children’s environmental psychology, especially in promoting the study of children’s environmental behavior and children’s wellbeing.

  • Song Changyao, Li Xinjian, Wang Xuefeng, Zhang Hui, Song Rui, Zheng Bowei, Xie Chaowu, Tang Chengcai, Ning Zhizhong, Su Lujun, Shen Haien
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 183-205. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20230041

    The Tourism Law of the People’s Republic of China (referred to as the Tourism Law) is a comprehensive legislation that integrates the promotion law, the supervision law, and the transaction law, which makes basic institutional arrangement to ensure and promote the standardized and efficient operation of the tourism industry. Taking the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the Tourism Law as an opportunity, this article starts from the main chapters of the Tourism Law, discusses the new situation and new business forms, the deepening of three-dimensional supervision and special projects, the promotion of planning and the standardi-zation of tourism attractions, the guarantee of tourists’ wellbeing and the way of private law reform, and then puts forward suggestions on future directions for the revision of the Tourism Law. The paper suggests that: (1) the comprehensive leveraging mechanism of tourism needs to be optimized urgently. It is required to increase the interpretation of tourism rights, promote the transformation of legislative spirit towards collaborative development, strengthen attention and guidance to new business formats, and improve relevant supporting and implementation rules. We need to adhere to the principle of inclusiveness and prudence, and closely monitor the development of new tourism formats. (2) It is necessary to strengthen and optimize the multi-dimensional supervision of tourism from the entire process, all-round, multi-body, multi-modality and multi-discipline; to deepen tourism safety supervision, and further clarify the safety supervision responsibilities of tourism administrative departments and other departments concerned, the governance system for high-risk tourism projects, and the safety responsibilities of online tourism operators; to strengthen the supervision of tourism ecological impact. (3) It is required to optimize the formulation system of special tourism planning and establish the principle of adapting tourism land to national land classification. (4) It is necessary to study and formulate the regulations on tourism attractions to solve issues such as licensing of tourism resources development, legal procedures for tourism attractions opening up, and responsibility boundaries of tourism attractions. (5) It is necessary to establish a legal guarantee to meet the needs of tourists for a better life and safeguard their sense of happiness from the perspectives of tourist destinations, tourism operators, tourism practitioners, and tourists. (6) It is urgent to explore and solve the problems of weak operability, poor development and excessive localization of tourism private law from the direction of standardization, soft law configuration and internationalization.

  • Sun Jiuxia, Wang Shujia
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 206-221. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20230002

    Rural revitalization is the inevitable requirement and path to achieving common prosperity. Rural tourism has become one of the most shining paths to promote the realization of common prosperity in rural areas. Theoretically, the institutional mission of Chinese society and people’s yearning for a better life have become the motivation for contemporary China to explore the path of promoting the common prosperity by rural tourism. The large-scale continuous tourism flow from the city to the countryside has become the driving medium, and the interaction of rural tourism has contributed to the common prosperity of urban and rural residents’ material and spirit, which is the core reaction of the promoting path. However, rural tourism is still faced with five practical challenges in promoting common prosperity: the alienation of rural landscape, the low economic benefits, the lag of spiritual development, the enlargement of the gap between the rich and the poor, and the lack of sustainability. Therefore, rural tourism research needs to switch to a systematic perspective that covers a larger geographical scale of city and township, encompasses the dual connotation of common affluence. Based on the urban-rural geographic space connected by rural tourism flow and the front stage and back stage divided by rural tourism interaction, this study tries to take circular reaction as the main axis and “input-transformation-output-feedback” as the tool to explore the research framework of rural tourism promoting common prosperity. The framework includes three modules: core research question domain, extended research question domain, and research means, to promote the theoretical and practical development of rural tourism promoting common prosperity in the future.

  • Ma Xiaobin, Zhang Jinhe, Sun Yi, Zhou Leying, Wang Peijia
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 237-251. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20230012

    The relationship between regional economy and tourism development is a key issue in the scientific interpretation of quality tourism economic development. Taking the Yangtze River Basin as the research object, this study constructs an allometric growth model of regional economy-tourism scale and explores the spatiotemporal correlation characteristics and allometric growth level transition process of regional economy-tourism scale from 2010 to 2019 using exploratory spatial analysis methods. The results show that: (1) The regional economy and tourism scale in the Yangtze River Basin show a trend of ‘high in the southeast and low in the northwest’, and their spatiotemporal correlation indicates a temporal stability and spatial heterogeneity. There are inter-basin differences and intra-basin differences in the upper, middle and lower reaches. (2) The longitudinal (time) scale factor of the regional economy-tourism scale in the Yangtze River Basin shows a fluctuating trend of first rising and then falling. The allometric growth relationship is dominated by the regional economy growing faster than tourism. Horizontally (space), positive allometry dominates overall. The evolution of allometric growth level has the characteristics of ‘overall stability with regional fluctuations’, with greater changes in the upper and middle reaches and more stability in the lower reaches. (3) The change in allometric growth level of regional economy-tourism scale in Yangtze River Basin is mainly characterized by upward transforming from negative to positive allometry levels. Tourism development has a significant promoting effect on regional and economy for most areas. The allometric relationship between regional economy-tourism scale reveals complex internal connections between tourism and economic development, providing theoretical support for achieving high-quality development of river basin tourism economy.

  • Industrial Heritage Tourism
    Ma Li, Gong Zhongjie, Chen Linlin
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 268-278. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220020

    As a tourism form relying on the material and cultural heritages of regional industrial activities, industrial heritage tourism is deeply affected by the spatial layout, production and organization pattern of industrial activities. Industrial geography has also become an important discipline basis for the practices and researches of industrial heritage tourism on the resources distribution, development mode, and spatial organization. Based on the study of spatial layout features of state industrial heritage projects in China, this paper demonstrates the main factors influencing the distribution of industrial heritage. This paper argues that the industrial location theory studies the spatial layout and scientific mechanism of industrial activities from the perspective of theory and practice, which can provide theoretical support for understanding and analyzing the spatial layout of industrial heritage. Industrial sector geography focuses on the study of the production and spatial distribution characteristics, production organization mode and location characteristics of different industrial sectors, which can provide a theoretical basis for understanding the resource form and development mode of industrial heritage. Regional industrial geography, which focuses on the close relationship between industrial development and regional socio-economic elements and spatial organization, will provide an important theoretical basis for the research on the value mining, development and protection mode of industrial heritage, as well as the interactive relationship between industrial heritage development and urban and regional development. Finally, from the perspective of industrial geography theory and method innovation, this paper put forward four scientific questions to be concerned of industrial heritage tourism research as follows: focusing on the research on the spatial distribution of industrial heritage tourism resources and its influencing factors, studying the tourism developing mode of industrial heritage resources based on the characteristics of regional industrial development, paying attention to the interaction between industrial form of industrial heritage tourism and regional economic development; and researching integrated development mechanism of industrial heritage tourism resources and regional tourism industry.

  • Industrial Heritage Tourism
    Liu Yanxiao, Song Yang, Ma Meina, Li Ruishi
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 293-304. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220086

    Industrial heritage has become an increasingly attractive new tourism resource with its unique tourism value, and it is an important basis for scientific guidance of industrial heritage inheritance and utilization to build an index system for industrial heritage tourism value assessment. Based on the literature analysis, we propose a framework of components and index system for industrial heritage tourism value assessment, and we use 22 national industrial heritages in Northeast China as an example for measurement and verification. The results show that: (1) Industrial heritage tourism value assessment components include inherent value, market value, and environmental factors; inherent value is the intrinsic value of industrial heritage, market value is the external tourism development value, environmental factors are the constraints of tourism development, and the components interact with each other. (2) Industrial heritage tourism value assessment index system includes 3 criterion layers of inherent value, market value, and environmental factors and 14 specific indicators such as recreation value, location degree, and pollution degree. The industrial heritage tourism value is obtained through the expert evaluation method, entropy method, and comprehensive index method. (3) The 22 national industrial heritage tourism values in Northeast China are relatively consistent with the current situation and actual situation of the industrial heritage development. The index system follows the concept and connotation of industrial heritage as a tourism resource, and highlights its tourism value. It is significant to provide theoretical support for the formulation of national industrial heritage tourism value assessment standards and provide decision-making reference for the timing and grade arrangement of industrial heritage tourism development and utilization.

  • Industrial Heritage Tourism
    Wang Yue, Wang Qiuju
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 305-315. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220078

    Place meaning reflects “the value and significance of the environment to the individual”. The transformation of industrial heritage sites into tourist destination brings about the change of the original place meaning. This paper takes the Beamish Museum as the research object and uses tourists’ comments from Tripadvisor as the research text. Informed by the constructive grounded theory, the research adopts the coding technique to identify the dimensions of the place meaning of the industrial heritage site, and to construct the dimension model of the place meaning. The study found that the place meaning of industrial heritage sites is formed from three interactive levels of “self”, “society” and “environment”, and the place meaning is composed of inherent material meaning, instrumental significance, social and cultural meaning and identity expressive meaning from the outside to the inside. This paper constructs the model of place meaning of industrial heritage sites and provides support for the theoretical research and managerial practices of industrial heritage sites in the future.

  • Industrial Heritage Tourism
    Liu Lihua, He Jun
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 316-328. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220082

    In the current industrial heritage movement, heritages have gradually become a new type of consumer enclave or monumental industrial holy site that is dis-embedded from the development of heritage communities. The community is the primary environment of a heritage, and the emotional relationship between the community and a heritage's history, memory, knowledge and identity constitutes an important challenge to the conservation, utilization and sustainable development of a heritage. From the theoretical perspective of traumatic memory, based on a comprehensive analysis of factory records of state-owned large-scale industrial enterprises, network texts, and interview texts of workers, this paper aims to reveal the mechanism of traumatic memory affecting community identity and heritage conservation in Tiexi District of Shenyang. It is found that the lack of understanding of the heritage’s emotional value in the process of industrial heritage conservation and the lack of interaction with the community are reasons for the community to treat the industrial heritage as a foreign culture. Influenced by the environment, body and cultural trauma, the community forms the traumatic memory of the heritage, which makes the meaning of the heritage site reconstructed and become a “love-hate” painful place. As an important factor affecting community industrial cultural identity, traumatic memory will limit community participation and action in heritage conservation. This paper argues that the contradictory and detrimental features of industrial heritage should be recognized, and envisaged, presented and responded to; We should value the identity of community as the primary environment of heritage and rebuild the relationship between community and heritage; Through oral history, witness literature, collective narration, tourism exhibition and other ways, trauma can be declared and fully explained, so as to establish the connection between the past and the present, thus the “victims” can depart from the memory dilemma and form a heritage identity. This will help the industrial heritage grow into the common heritage of the society, and achieve the sustainable development of heritage conservation and utilization through the collaboration of community and power, capital, and professional knowledge.

  • Industrial Heritage Tourism
    Fan Xiaojun, Xu Honggang
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(2): 329-341. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220125

    Women workers are important participants in industrial production and have a significant impact on industrial production and society life. The value of women workers is the integral element for meaning reconstruction and value expression of industrial heritage usage in tourism development. In this research, data of media information and visitors’ comments of four representative textile museums were collected, then they were used to explore the display features of female workers’ value in the industrial heritage tourism by comparing the information presented at the input and output ends of display and interpretation system. The research found that information transmission of female workers in the textile museum is very limited, indicating the lack of female role, the shortage of content, the simplicity of display forms with the major impacting factors from the static narrative system, the lack of personal awareness and gender perspective, and the limitation of technologies. The significance of heritage lies in value expression and transmission. In this process of constructing the presentation and interpretation of industrial heritages, a tempo dimension should be considered; in respect of content, special value regarding female workers should be further minded; meanwhile, the life scenarios of female workers should be restored, and effects of interaction and participation should be strengthened, with the purpose of showing the contribution of women to the core value of industrial heritage in a general yet authentic manner. As an explorative study on the presentation and interpretation of industrial heritage, this paper advocates scholars and practitioners to value the industrial heritage’s presentation and interpretation and to concern the female group in the development of tourism products.

  • Xu Mingyue, Gao Jun, Wang Qi, Liao Yue’e
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(1): 1-12. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220150

    In the context of COVID-19, tourist destinations are facing the dual pressure of restoring tourism development and epidemic prevention and control. Residents are one of the core stakeholder groups in tourist destinations, and their attitude towards tourism is an important factor affecting the recovery of tourism. In this paper, residents’ government trust and perception of COVID-19 risk were taken as antecedent variables, and the destination social responsibility was taken as moderating variable to construct a resident tourism support model under the background of normalizing the epidemic. Residents of Bole, a border city, were selected as survey objects, and structural equation was used to empirically test the model. It is found that: (1) Residents’ government trust has a direct positive effect on tourism support, and can also indirectly affect residents’ tourism support by reducing residents’ risk perception; (2) The destination social responsibility has a significant positive moderating effect on the residents’ relationship between government trust and risk perception, that is, the residents’ awareness of destination social responsibility strengthens the negative effect of residents’ government trust on risk perception; (3) The destination social responsibility has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between residents’ government trust and tourism support. The study suggests that government trust is an important factor influencing residents’ support for tourism development in China under the background of COVID-19 normalization, and the destination social responsibility will reinforce the importance of this factor.

  • Toursim of Leisure Block
    Tang Juan, Wang Degen, Wang Li
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(1): 78-94. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220113

    The cultural value of the scene has the function of gathering creative people and promoting the transformation of space under the shift of consumption pattern. Identifying the cultural value of scenes in historic blocks is conducive to promoting the spatial vitality as well as urban renewal development. Based on the theory of scenes and grounded theory, this paper identified the culture value of scenes on Pingjiang Road through empirical analysis. Then, it constructed a method of cultural value identification of scenes that is applicable to historic blocks. The results indicate that: (1) The charisma and traditionalism of Pingjiang Road are highlighted, forming a glamourous localized and experiential space. (2) The cultural value of scenes in historic blocks can be identified by 25 indicators in three dimensions, including legitimacy, theatricality, and authenticity. (3) Amenities in historic blocks cover three categories: natural landscape, culture, and consumer entertainment facilities. Amenities and environmental atmosphere constitute the “form” and “rhythm” of the scene respectively. Then, they are converted into “sense” through perception/cognition, consumption, and personal information processing, namely, individual emotional memory, and thus we can identify the cultural value of the scene. This paper expands the application of scene theory in historic blocks through the identification of scenes’ cultural values. It is also useful for measuring the differences between scene characteristics and planning orientation in Pingjiang historic block.

  • Toursim of Leisure Block
    Fang Shu, Feng Juan, Xie Shuangyu
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(1): 95-110. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220084

    Based on tourism area life cycle theory, this study takes 9 historical streets in different tourism life cycles in Wuhan as the study areas, and explores the impact of residents’ identity in those areas on their tourism development intention through qualitative data analysis, and makes a comparative analysis of the streets in different life cycles. The results show that residents’ identity mainly influences their tourism development intention from the aspects of emotional factors, economic factors, social environmental factors, tourism development factors and cultural factors. With the combination between the identity strength (weak or strong) and the attitudinal intention (positive or negative) of tourism development, residents can be divided into four types of identity-intention types: “active advocates”, “traditional adherents”, “economic elites” and “non-participants”. In different historical streets with different stages of tourism area life cycle, the impact of residents’ identity on their tourism development intention is different. In the streets at participation and consolidation stage, “traditional adherents” are the majority; in the streets at development stage, “active advocates” are dominant; at the consolidation stage, there are both “active advocates” and “non-participants”, and the conflict between them is particularly intensive. Finally, according to the types and characteristics of residents at different stages of tourism area life cycle, some suggestions on promoting the development and protection of community tourism are put forward.

  • Toursim of Leisure Block
    Wu Xinrui, Dai Xiangyi
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(1): 111-127. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220106

    Historic districts preserve diverse urban cultures with the key material representation of cultural landscapes. Over the past 40 years, historic districts have undergone a large-scale regeneration and utilization for the rapid urbanization and industrialization. When historical districts turn into tourism attractions, symbolization has become the dominant logic of tourism development and space reconstruction. Adopting the semiotics and grounded theory, this study aims to analyze the expression of symbolic meaning and to delineate the symbol construction and its interpretation system in Qianmen Street with photographic data from Mafengwo, one of the main online tourist communities in China. The result shows that: various types of symbols represent Qianmen Street, including index symbols, architectural symbols, street symbols, and commercial symbols. The functional diversification and transformation of urban position serve as the specific scenario for symbol construction and interpretation, which involved multiple stakeholder groups and differ in ways of construction with different values of the symbols. Symbol interpretation requires tourist participation physically. The research indicates that the meaning has been accepted and interpreted correctly when tourists’ symbols match stakeholders’ symbols.

  • Toursim of Leisure Block
    Wang Qun, Xu Jing, Yuan Hongrui, Fan Xiping, Huang Conghui
    ECOTOURISM. 2023, 13(1): 138-151. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220110

    Historical and cultural blocks are not only important landmarks of urban culture, but also important resources for tourism development. They become important practical scenario for the integration of culture and tourism in the new era. Tunxi Old Street and Liyang Street are selected as representatives of traditional and reconstructed historical and cultural blocks, which are both located in Tunxi District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, and adjacent to each other. From the perspective of semiotics, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for the integration of culture and tourism in historical and cultural blocks. Empirical analysis shows that both the traditional and reconstructed historical and cultural blocks have formed cultural and tourism symbols in six aspects: thematic position, culture and tourism value, spatial layout, physical carriers, business types and tourism service. The former is dominated by traditional cultural symbols, while the latter is dominated by modern tourism symbols; obvious differences exist between two types of historical and cultural blocks in their uniqueness, prominence, integration and adaptability of cultural and tourism symbols. The uniqueness of local culture and the adaptability to tourism development are the specific features respectively of the former and the latter blocks. This paper, thus, puts forward tourism-oriented paths in traditional historical and cultural blocks and culture-oriented paths in the reconstructed historical and cultural blocks. These two types of blocks should strengthen the symbolization of cultural resources, diversification of resource functions, integration of symbol space and presentation of cultural symbols, which consequently promotes the value of cultural products and the quality of tourism services, so as to achieve the sustainable development of historical and cultural blocks.

  • Mountain Tourism
    Li Lihua, Zhou Jin, Lei Ruoran
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 905-922. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220068

    Ignoring workation is the root reason that mountain tourism has not been developed to an internationally expected level. In terms of the conceptual framework of workation by Uriely N. (2000, 2001), this article firstly consents that both workation and mountain tourism had synchronously originated from the Grand Tour, and secondly finds the workation turn in mountain areas aiming to the transformation of tourists and host residents through co-learning and co-creating, which indicates the workation features of mountain tourism. The Tibet-pair aiding is a special workation type in China. This article summarizes the five characteristics of workation existing in mountain tourism: the hardship caused by the complicated topographical condition and oppression caused by contextual condition, the culture related to political structure and power, the creative feature induced by cultural and environmental diversity, the spiritual value orientation of tourists driven by individual motivation, and the theoretical pursuits that is difficult to be explained and understood. Accordingly, this article suggests to explore the sustainable high-quality mountain tourism development in the following four aspects, such as the leading development through culture construction, the innovative development through value and spiritual experience led by red tourism, the modernized development through industrial cluster agglomeration and efficient integration, and the opening development through brand construction and reputation management. This article also suggests to leverage the duality of the oneness and complementarity of leisure and work, leisure tourism and workation, thus providing new thoughts of workation that surpass the singularity of the industrial thinking for the sustainable and high-quality development of mountain tourism.

  • Mountain Tourism
    Ming Qingzhong, Ling Junjie, Shi Pengfei
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 938-948. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220057

    To explore the development mechanism of mountain tourism from the perspective of the shift from institutional constraints and economic incentives to cultural consciousness will help clarify the original driving force of mountain tourism development and form a sustainable development model of mountain tourism. By exploring the relationship between cultural consciousness and tourism development, this paper investigates the internal mechanism of mountain tourism development driven by cultural consciousness. At the same time, the paper employs Bourdieu’s field theory for analysis, and selects the Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Spot in Lijiang City, Yunnan Province as an example to conduct field research on the government workers, residents, tourism practitioners and tourists. The research shows that: (1) Cultural consciousness can drive the development of mountain tourism, which originates from the self-inspection in the context of subject-object interaction. (2) The transformation of cultural capital and the adjustment of habitual habits are the specific process of cultural consciousness driving the development of mountain tourism. (3) The creative transformation of the value of tourism resources and the perceived update of the supply content by tourists are the results of cultural consciousness driving the development of mountain tourism. (4) The shaping of the “culture-people-tourism” relationship chain is the core of cultural consciousness driving the development of mountain tourism. (5) The realization from cultural consciousness to development autonomy is the essence of cultural consciousness driving the development of mountain tourism. The research extends the application of cultural consciousness in mountain tourism studies, and also provides new ideas and references for the high-quality development of mountain scenic tourism in ethnic areas.

  • Mountain Tourism
    Li Rui, Zou Yuanhai, He Jingming, Yin Hongmei, Wu Mengshan
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 977-992. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220077

    This paper introduces the relative deprivation as a moderator to construct a structural model involving community participation, perception of empowerment, perception of disempowerment and social well-being. Taking Langde Village in Leishan County, Guizhou Province as an example, this paper empirically analyzes the influence of enterprise intervention on the social well-being of residents in ethnic tourism villages. The results show that: (1) Community participation has a significantly positive impact on the social well-being of village residents. (2) The perception of empowerment has significant positive impact and the perception of disempowerment has significant negative impact on social well-being of village residents. (3) The perception of empowerment and disempowerment partially mediates the impact of community involvement on social well-being of village residents. (4) Relative deprivation negatively moderates the impact of perception of empowerment and disempowerment on the social well-being of village residents. The above conclusions prove the tourism impact of the difference between community involvement and power perception on the social psychological state of village residents has been enhanced after enterprise intervention from the perspective of social well-being. This study confirms that enterprise intervention affects the social well-being of village residents through two paths after: “community involvement→perception of empowerment→social well-being” and “community involvement→perception of disempowerment→social well-being”. It reveals that the influence of power perception on social well-being after enterprise intervention is different among village residents with different relative deprivation, which provides a theoretical basis for the study of the influence on social well-being of residents in tourist destinations. It also provides practical guidance for the sustainable development of ethnic village tourism after the intervention of enterprises.

  • Mountain Tourism
    Li Hui, Wu Xiaoying, Zhou Bin, Yu Hu
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 993-1006. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220115

    Adopting the CiteSpace knowledge graph method, this paper analyzes the research progress of international ethnic tourism in recent 30 years through Web of Science database. The research results show that the hot spots of international ethnic tourism research have evolved from the concept definition to the sustainable development of ethnic tourism destination and then to the community response of ethnic tourism destination, which can be divided into three stages: exploring, developing and deepening. The research topics mainly focus on the following six areas: the evaluation of the sustainability of ethnic tourism destinations, the authenticity of ethnic tourism, the politicization of ethnic tourism, the cultural heritage of ethnic tourism, the management of ethnic tourism communities and the cultural management of ethnic tourism destinations. It is suggested that academia in China should strengthen the policy orientation, problem orientation and academic foresight of ethnic tourism research, emphasize research on high-quality development and the cultural authenticity of ethnic tourism destinations, as well as cultural stress and cultural resilience of ethnic tourism destinations, thus to accelerate the construction of ethnic tourism research academic discourse system with Chinese characteristics.

  • Administrative Divisions and Tourism Development
    Wang Kaiyong, Wang Fuyuan
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 1007-1020. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220153

    The tourism region is a functional area that formed in the process of regional tourism development, which is affected by administrative division and the borders between those regions. The spreading of all-for-one tourism and the strengthening of the relationship between different tourism regions have made the synergetic development across the administrative region and regional tourism an impelling issue. This paper analyzes the coupling relationship between administrative division and regional tourism from the perspective of trans-administrative-region tourism collaboration and trans-administrative-region integration; proposes the rigid constraint effect informed by the administrative-region economic theory and potential theory, implying that the problem of the imbalance of tourism development between different administrative regions and the disconformity of the management are difficult to be solved in limited time. Meanwhile, the disconformity between the administrative region and the tourism regions leads to the human and cultural heterogeneity of the development of different tourism regions, which varied in supporting the development and management of tourism functional regions, thus the imbalance of the developing level and conflicts of those regions and the disharmony state of regional areas regarding the human-planet relations. Five research focuses are proposed by the research: The exploration of theoretical and policy innovation in promoting the collaboration between administrative regions and regional tourism; the assessment and reasons of the disconformity between administrative regions and tourism regions; the tempo-spatial process, effects and mechanism of the coupling between administrative regions and tourism regions; the path and mode for the collaborative development between administrative regions and regional tourism; and the reforms of administrative system and guarantee policy for trans-administrative-region tourism.

  • Administrative Divisions and Tourism Development
    Xie Ting, Wan Xiaomeng, Jiang Yiyi
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 1038-1052. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220138

    The fragmented “territorial management” mode is difficult to meet the development demands of cross-regional tourist destinations and the consumption demands of tourists. Adopting the research line of “case selection, mode summary and development suggestion” and the perspective of collaboration maturity, this paper selects three interregional tourism destinations in different stages of cooperation for analysis, and summarizes their development modes, specific measures and development experience. The results show that: The Hukou Waterfall tourist area of the Yellow River is the first successful cross-regional joint creation of 5A scenic spot in China, which belongs to the mature collaboration stage with a government-led multi-regional development mode. Wugong Mountain scenic spot is the first scenic spot in China to solve the problem of “one mountain, three governance modes” through coordinated legislation. It is located in the initiative stage, with a legislative-guaranteed and enterprise-unified-operation development mode. However, the cross-regional collaborative development of the Tiantangzhai scenic spot still remains undeveloped, and its development mode implies a mutual independent operation and superficial collaboration. The research also found that the development of mature cross-regional tourist destinations needs the top-level design of higher administrative level government; large strategic project significantly strengthens the regional cooperation willingness; regional cooperative legislation is an innovative means of collaborative development. Unified brand publicity and modern management are conducive to the mature development of tourist destinations.

  • Administrative Divisions and Tourism Development
    Zhu Jianhua, Gong Yue, Dong Jie, Li Wenya
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(6): 1053-1066. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220080

    As an interlocking area between adjacent administrative regions, the integrated natural geographical units within scenic spots are relatively fragmented due to the existence of administrative boundaries, making them a special type of regional spatial governance. This paper takes 306 5A-level scenic spots in China as the research objects, uses map data and GIS spatial analysis to draw the following conclusions: (1) There are 69 5A-level cross-boundary scenic spots in China, with an overall clustered spatial distribution pattern. (2) Cross-boundary scenic spots can be divided from the perspective of development purpose, type of primary resource, boundary scale and cross-boundary unit. Tourism development and management of different types of cross-boundary scenic spots are distinct. (3) There are four different manage-ment modes for cross-boundary scenic spots: government-led, multi-zone governance, manage-ment committee governance and enterprise-led. Each management mode has both periodical characteristics and common problems. Finally, based on different spatial scales, this paper puts forward three specific integration paths: boundary modification of adjacent administration regions; horizontal connection between government departments; unified management mode by tourism enterprises. This study aims to break through the boundary shielding effect and achieve effective regional tourism cooperative governance.

  • Li Yajuan, Ouyang Chenxing, Xu Yangyan, Yu Hu
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(5): 721-735. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220109

    Fund support is an important orientation to guide the discipline development. Since the 21st century, the rapid development of China’s tourism discipline has been closely related to the direction of fund support. Based on the tourism related academic projects from 1999 to 2020 sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences, this paper analyzes the dynamic change of research topics. Results show that: (1) As for the application fields, tourism projects sponsored by NSFC focus on the disciplines of geosciences and management. The projects sponsored by the National Social Science Foundation of China (NSSFC) mainly involve ethnic issues, applied economy and management. (2) In terms of categories, the youth science and regional tourism projects sponsored by NSFC have been stable since 2012. The number of key projects and general projects has increased, with a significant growth in the number of key projects; the general projects of the NSSFC show a “multi-peak” trend. And the total amount of funding for the youth science projects is less than half of the general projects. The number of key projects has increased since 2012. (3) Regarding the theme, the projects focus on 5 research hotspots, including tourism impact, tourism service and management, tourism and related industry development, tourism space research and tourist research, among which tourism impact research receives the highest proportion of funding. In the future, the funding should pay more attention to tourism demand and consumption under dual circulation pattern, tourism construction under double carbon target, tourist behavior and tourism recovery based on post-epidemic era, and tourism sustainability under the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

  • Shen Qingqiong, Ou Weiqiang, Zhong Xiaoyan
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(5): 736-752. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220090

    It is still controversial whether the development of tourism economy can promote common prosperity. Based on the inter-provincial panel data of China from 1999 to 2019, this paper adopts the dynamic spatial Durbin model to construct four spatial weight matrices with the dual perspectives of geographical and economic characteristics, and investigates the impact of tourism economic development on regional common prosperity and the spatial spillover effect. The results show that: (1) Both geographical and economic characteristics have impacts on the spatial effect of tourism economic development promoting common prosperity, yet economic characteristics have a greater impact. (2) The development of tourism economy has significantly promoted the development of common prosperity, which not only improves the overall level of prosperity, but also has the sharing effect that contributes to equality. However, the effect of growth, “making the cake bigger”, is stronger at present, and the spillover effect of tourism economy still has room for improvement in narrowing regional economic gap. (3) Tourism economic development level affects the industrial structure rationalization factor, which shows an inverted “U” shaped double threshold feature. We should actively promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure when the tourism economic development is at low level; and pay attention to the rationalization of industrial structure transformation and avoid industrial hollowing when the tourism economic development reached a higher level.

  • Wang Meiyan, Wang Maojun
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(5): 753-769. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220120

    It is clearly pointed out in the report of the 19th CPC National Congress that China will promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas, support and encourage employment and business startups there, and open up more channels to increase rural incomes. Currently, rural tourism is a hot industry for villagers to start their own businesses and also an important measure for rural revitalization. Taking Lianhuachi Village, a typical tourism village in the Huairou District of Beijing, as an example, this study conducts semi-structured interviews and field surveys among villagers, applies the grounded theory to analyze their action logic and influencing factors of their entrepreneurship, and develops a theoretical model of influencing factors of villagers’ entrepreneurship under three main categories of entrepreneurs’ characteristics, entrepreneurial conditions, and entrepreneurial environment. In this study, binary logistic regression is used to analyze the effects of influencing factors from two aspects: whether to start a business and how to sustain the business. The study has three findings: First, the decision model of villagers’ entrepreneur- ship has two aspects, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial conditions which include human capital, physical capital and social capital of a family. Second, villagers’entrepreneurship features feminization and young age, family labor capacity and road accessibility are preconditions of starting a business, and family spending on socialization, key persons of village entrepreneurs and favorable environment in the region contribute to business sustainability. Third, dominant factors influencing the entrepreneurial choice have changed from internal ones to external and social ones.

  • Marine Tourism
    Liu Jia, Ji Xiaomeng, Liu Xianming, Li Yuxuan
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(5): 770-787. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220091

    Marine tourism is an important type of marine economy. The enhancement of marine tourism and related research is a fundamental task to serve China’s Strategy of Building a Maritime Power. In this paper, 619 Chinese journal articles collected by the General Database of Chinese Academic Journals Online Publishing are systematically analyzed to understand the evolution of marine tourism research in China. It is found that the number of publications related to marine tourism in China from 1992 to 2021 is characterized as “starting gradually, increasing sharply, and shrinking with fluctuation”. The reasearch has gone through a resource-oriented exploration phase (1992-2002), which focused on marine tourism environmental elements and resource value assessment; an industry-oriented comprehensive promotion phase (2003-2010), which focused on the expansion of diversified issues and the innovation of integrated methods; and a strategic-oriented expansion phase (2011-2021), which is closely linked to national strategic needs and enriched by practical applications. Previous research has focused on five areas: theoretical connotation and scope of marine tourism, resource development and evaluation, social and economic impact, resources, environment and sustainable development, and destination development and management. Based on the theoretical and practical needs of China’s marine tourism development in the new era, emphasis should be placed on the integration of disciplines, the integration of technical tools and the construction of data platforms, so as to enhance the suitability of theoretical research to the national strategy, local realistic needs and practical development of the industry. Therefore, this paper provides theoretical and decision-making guidance to promote the high-quality development of marine tourism in China.

  • Marine Tourism
    Li Han, Ding Zhiwei, Liu Zhuolin, Zhang Xiyang
    ECOTOURISM. 2022, 12(5): 814-830. https://doi.org/10.12342/zgstly.20220060

    Based on the index of Baidu search volume, this paper adopts spatial classification, kernel density, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and other methods to analyze the spatial differences and influencing factors of Baidu's attention on A-level attractions in China’s coastal zone and to explore the differences in the network soft power of tourist attractions in the study area and its relationship with the physical construction of those attractions. The results show that: (1) The overall pattern of “dual core development” is presented, and the trend of “stars crowding the moon” is formed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Low level attention attractions account for 95% of the total and the value of the level is distributed continuously. High level attention attractions are mainly distributed in the northern Yellow Sea and Bohai Bay. (2) The spatial association type is dominated by LL agglomeration, while HH agglomeration only takes Bohai Bay and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai as the center to form a dual core agglomeration trend. The number of HL types is small and mainly near the HH region, reflecting the local polarization effect. (3) Compared with the tourism economy, the degree of coincidence between the two is high as a whole, but the gathering ability under Baidu’s attention is stronger and local core areas have significantly contracted, reflecting the polarization and multiplication effect of cyberspace. Compared with that before the epidemic, most attractions have undergone network transformation and paid attention to the improvement of operation level in the near future. The Bohai Bay and Yangtze River estuary attractions have shown outstanding performance, followed by eastern Liaoning and Fujian, with no obvious effect in other regions. (4) Physical construction level and short video promotion act as the core influencing factors. The coupling effect of tourist evaluation and public opinion diffusion also has a great impact, while the basic factors such as transportation, communication and location have no obvious effect.