The pro-environmental behavior of residents in nature reserves is an important force for protecting the ecological environment and achieving sustainable development. This study integrates the theories of “knowledge, belief and practice” and planned behavior to construct an integrated framework of “perception-belief-behavior”. Taking the surrounding communities of Huangshan Nature Reserve as a case, it conducts empirical tests using the structural equation model. The results show that: (1) Residents’ perception (knowledge) of ecosystem culture, supply and regulation services can directly promote pro-environmental behaviors (practices), among which the influence of cultural service perception is the most prominent, reflecting the profound influence of the Chinese concept of “harmony between man and nature”. (2) Ecosystem service perception, as the cognitive foundation, significantly positively influences behavioral attitudes and perceptual behavioral control (belief), presenting a clear internalization path of “knowledge→belief”. (3) Behavioral attitudes and perceptual behavioral control play a key mediating role in the transformation from “knowledge” to “practice”, fully revealing the transmission mechanism of “knowledge-belief-practice”, while the mediating role of subjective norms is not significant. Research has confirmed that the “knowledge-attitude/belief-practice” theory can effectively explain the formation path of pro-environmental behavior in the Chinese context. To this end, the sustainable development of protected area communities should be promoted in a coordinated manner through a comprehensive governance path that involves cultural value exploration, the construction of an empowerment-compensation mechanism, and the establishment of a community participation platform.

Ecotourism, a green and low-carbon industry, is vital for sustainable use of resource in natural protected areas and ecological civilisation. This study analyses 46 policy documents from the central government and ministries since June 2019 using textual analysis. It explores how new quality productive forces empower ecotourism development in protected areas. Findings show: (1) ecotourism is a core approach for resource utilisation, involving spatial planning, operations, business formats, and goals, but an innovation-driven development system powered by“ecotourism productivity”remains unestablished; (2) Policy analysis reveals three critical challenges in ecotourism development during the digital-intelligence era: conceptual implementation, mechanism adaptation, and developmental lag, which can be categorised as issues with labour objects, tools, and workers; (3) Based on the three elements of new quality productive forces, three pathways are proposed: using digital technologies to expand resource use (new labour object), applying intelligent tools to boost efficiency (new labour tools), and training talent with ecological and innovative skills for sustained growth (new labourer). By clarifying the relationship between new-quality productive forces and ecotourism in protected natural areas, this paper innovatively introduces the concept of“ecotourism productivity” and offers development pathways, guiding sustainable ecotourism planning and policy optimisation in ecotourism within protected areas.

Nature reserves serve as vital vehicles for China’s ecological civilization development. Given the current pressing need for advancing nature education, exploring how to leverage the educational efficacy of tourism interpretation is imperative. This study employs a mixed research methods combining the UTAUT model with affective cognitive evaluation theory, utilizing structural equation modeling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. It examines the influencing mechanisms of tourism interpretation usage behavior among youngsters from a stage-of-development perspective. Results indicate: (1) performance expectations, social influence, perceived value, and satisfaction positively influence usage intention among youngsters. (2) Satisfaction mediates the relationship between perceived value and usage intention. (3) Interpretation usage behavior emerges from the coordinated interaction of multiple factors. (4) For secondary school students, social influence and satisfaction are key determinants for shaping their usage behavior, whereas performance expectations dominate usage behavior among university students. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the influencing mechanisms of interpretation usage behavior among youngsters, offering theoretical support and practical guidance for optimizing interpretation system in nature reserves, conducting targeted nature education, and advancing ecological civilization development.

Natural reserves, leveraging their unique ecological advantages, have provided a critical foundation for regional tourism development, while tourism development serves as a key pathway to implement the “Two Mountains Theory” and achieve the transformation of ecological product value. Taking the natural reserves in Shaanxi Province as research object, the research systematically examines the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics and influencing factors of the coupled coordination between these two systems from 2011 to 2021 by constructing comprehensive evaluation index systems for ecological environment and tourism development, and applying the coupling coordination degree model, hotspot analysis, and obstacle degree model. The findings reveal: (1) during the study period, the development level of ecological environment system exhibited an inverted U-shaped trajectory, transitioning through phases of gradual decline, fluctuating recovery, and eventual restoration of advantages; and tourism development showed a “rapid rise followed by gradual decline” trend, with 2016 marking a turning point. (2) The coupling coordination degree between the ecological environment and tourism development generally increased, peaking at 0.7063 in 2018 before declining to a primary coordination level by 2021. Coordination types remained predominantly primary throughout the period, with the relative development pattern shifting from tourism lagging to ecological environment lagging. (3) From 2011 to 2017, advantageous regions for coordinated development included Yan’an, Xi’an, Shangluo, Baoji, Weinan, and Hanzhong. Post-2018, influenced by ecological pressures and policy adjustments, Weinan and Yan’an exited the advantageous zones by 2021, while hotspots converged in Hanzhong, Ankang, Shangluo, and Baoji. (4) To obtain long-term benign development of ecological environment and tourism development in nature reserves, it is necessary to pay attention to the low governance effectiveness of the ecological response system as well as the tour development system stage deficiency, improve the governance efficiency, optimize the implementation of the policy, and strengthen the research and development of solid waste recycling technology in order to achieve the efficient transformation of the value of ecological products.

The construction and maintenance of a tourism destination’s image are of great significance for enhancing the attractiveness and market competitiveness. Based on the online review data from three tourism websites: Ctrip, Dianping, and Maofengwo, this study employs text analysis and grounded theory methods to explore tourists’ perception of the image of the ice and snow tourism destination in Jilin Province. The findings reveal: (1) the perceived image of an ice and snow tourism destination encompasses seven thematic dimensions: the natural endowment, sports facility system, service guarantee system, cultural experience, risk management, emotional response and behavioral intention of tourists; (2) the overall perception image presents a three-tiered concentric structure: “core zone-secondary core zone-peripheral zone”. The core zone is centered on “skiing”, connecting related supporting facilities, highlighting the dependence of the comprehensive service system on skiing tourism; the secondary zone is centered on “frost flowers”, extending to “weather” and “luck”, reflecting the objective conditions of its ornamental nature; the peripheral zone is centered on “Changchun”, connecting nodes such as “Harbin” and “Ice and Snow World”, highlighting the cross-regional synergy effect of ice and snow tourism; (3) tourists’ positive perception image of Jilin Province is concentrated on natural endowment and sports facilities, while the negative perception image mainly stems from insufficient service guarantee and risk management. Accordingly, it is suggested that Jilin Province should enhance visitor experiences through resource integration and differentiated positioning among ice and snow tourism destinations, which can be achieved by, from the regional level, exploring the heterogeneity of ice and snow resources, constructing a regional cultural identity system for ice and snow tourism, optimizing facilities and services, and strengthening risk management. This will promote the sustainable development of ice and snow tourism destinations.

The green transformation of the tourism industry plays a pivotal role in advancing ecological civilization and realizing Chinese-style modernization characterized by harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. Tourism enterprises are central to this transformation yet, their actual progress toward green transformation remains slow. Prior research has predominantly emphasized incentive-oriented drivers, neglecting the constraining factors and their complex pathways. Drawing on grounded theory and clear-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA), this study analyzes in-depth interview data from 21 tourism enterprises varying in type, scale, and nature. It explores the restricting factors and constraining pathways of tourism enterprises’ green transformation. The findings reveal: (1) identification of seven major restricting factors, revealing that transformation obstacles result from the synergistic effects of multiple factors; (2) A three-tier dynamic framework“external pressure-enterprise response-execution gap”is developed, uncovering three distinct constraining pathways: the comprehensive “pressure-response-execution” constraint pattern, the dual “pressure-execution” constraint pattern, and the dominant “pressure-response” constraint pattern, each reflecting different organizational challenges and dilemmas in the transformation process. (3) Among the restricting factors, enterprises response elements such as cognition and resources generally play a core role, while external pressures like policies and regulations, as well as execution gaps, vary depending on the context. This study breaks through the conventional “unidirectional driving force” paradigm, focusing on the resistance and bottlenecks in green transformation, thereby providing a scientific foundation for overcoming barriers in tourism enterprises’ transformation.

Rural tourism cluster is a novel form of spatial layout emerging at a certain stage of rural tourism development, shaped by market forces and government guidance. They embody the practical need for the clustering of rural tourism elements and the transformation of endogenous driving forces. Rural tourism cluster is an important way for addressing the long-standing problems of rural tourism, such as single-industry dominance, small scale, scattered layout and disordered supervision. Drawing on domestic and international literature reviews, case studies, and in-depth interviews, this article examines the patterns, characteristics, trajectories, and institutional mechanisms of China's current rural tourism cluster development, establishing a theoretical analytical framework.The research concludes that: (1) Rural tourism cluster is a new form of tourism spatial layout characterized by rural authenticity and local cultural distinctiveness, achieved by strategically arranging tourism and related industrial elements within a specific spatial area. (2) Its fundamental features include rural experiences, villager-led development, spatial clustering, industrial integration and heritage protection. (3) To build a theoretical framework system with “geographic concentration-resource integration-industry integration” as the logic, it is necessary to deepen the research on the structure of rural tourism cluster types, evolution process, driving factors, and logical pathway in the future. The study clarifies the similarities and differences of the concepts related to rural tourism clusters, expands the boundaries of rural tourism research, and deepens the theoretical understanding.

In the context of rural revitalisation, the intervention of tourism economic activities has brought development vitality into rural areas while accelerating the imbalance of spatial resource distribution, leading to the increasing prominence of rural spatial justice issues. Based on the theory of spatial production and the theory of fairness preference, the article explores the evaluation of residents' perceptions of spatial justice in tourism-based villages, using Da Lingnan and Xiao Lingnan villages in Anhui Province as case studies. It analyses the characteristics of rural spatial injustice in the process of tourism development and proposes a governance pathways by adopting questionnaire surveys, interviews and mathematical statistics. The results show that: (1) the two villages showed residential segregation and uneven distribution of spatial resources in physical space, policy system imbalance and profit-seeking of corporate capital in institutional space, and interpersonal alienation and uneven distribution of opportunities for subject interests in social space. (2) An evaluation framework encompassing five dimensions, namely, intention, procedure, interaction, result and emotional justice, revealed low overall perception levels across all dimensions in both villages, particularly in interactive justice. (3) The phenomenon of spatial injustice should be governed from the three aspects of optimising the physical space, regulating the institutional space and integrating the social space, to foster more equitable tourism-oriented rural development. The article enriches the framework of residents' perceptions evaluation in tourism-based villages, and provides governance pathways for addressing spatial injustice spatial injustice in tourism-based villages.

Under the context of the rural revitalization strategy, artistic rural construction has emerged as an essential tool and vehicle for discovering, awakening, reconstructing, and revitalizing rural areas. Drawing on the perspective of relationship embeddedness, this study takes Xinzhuang Village in Beijing as a case to analyze the embedding behaviors and underlying mechanisms of external actors in artistic rural construction. The research reveals: (1) the development of artistic rural construction in Xinzhuang village has undergone three stages with the artistic rural development intervention: the transformation of traditional agriculture, the development of the innovator economy, and the growth of rural tourism, demonstrating a progressive process of external actors evolving from loose connections to deep social embedding. (2) Centered on relationship building among external innovators, artists, local villagers and the government, artistic rural construction exhibits a dynamic spiral pathway of cognitive, cultural, structural, and political embedding. (3) The case of Xinzhuang Village illustrates that continuous inputs of knowledge, information, and resources by external actors have collectively reshapes the village's social and economic structures, while harmonious relationship building serves as a critical foundation for promoting collaborative governance and sustainable development. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of how external economic activities embed within rural society and offer practical references for leveraging artistic rural development to empower rural revitalization.

The South China Sea region, as a key hub for commodity trade, ideas exchange, and technological dissemination in history, has significant implications for the revival of the Maritime Silk Road and regional development through its cultural diffusion pathways across various periods. During historical times, travel activities in the South China Sea region have left behind a wealth of travel literature, which not only witnessed the unique course of East-West cultural exchange but also provides valuable historical data for the study of the region's cultural evolution. Therefore, this study primarily selected over 30 domestic and foreign travel books from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, to analyze the dynamic development trends and network characteristics of cultural exchange routes in the South China Sea region based on cultural diffusion theory. The study found that: (1) the scope of cultural dissemination in the South China Sea region historically expanded from coastal areas to the sea, gradually forming the “Western Route” and “Eastern Route” as the two main cultural dissemination pathways, with the dissemination center undergoing a transition from land to sea and back to land. (2) Before the Yuan Dynasty, maritime travel activities and cultural dissemination networks were relatively sparse, but later the network structure became more complex, with increasingly frequent exchanges between various dissemination nodes, especially Sumatra Island becoming a key area for cultural dissemination. (3) From the mid-Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, maritime travel activities and cultural dissemination network reached its heyday; by the late Qing Dynasty, although the cultural dissemination network became sparse again, the impact of Western culture sparked collisions between Eastern and Western civilizations, giving rise to new exchange nodes. The study, through in-depth analysis of ancient travel books, clarifies the cultural dissemination nodes, routes, and networks along the Maritime Silk Road (South China Sea region) during historical periods, which has important reference significance for understanding the evolution of regional exchanges and regional relations.

The release of the Planning Outline for the Protection, Inheritance, and Utilization of Grand Canal Culture has created opportunities for the high-quality development of tourism economy in cities along the Grand Canal. To assess the policy’s effects, this study employs the entropy method to construct an evaluation system for high-quality tourism economic development, using panel data from 2010 to 2021 to measure the tourism economic development levels of cities along the Grand Canal. Based on the measurement results, the synthetic control method is applied to empirically test the impact of the Outline on high-quality tourism economic development. The findings show that: (1) divided by the Huai River, cities in southern provinces exhibit greater internal disparities in development levels than those in northern provinces. Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Ningbo demonstrate relatively high overall development levels, with scores of 0.724, 0.685, and 0.522, respectively, while Suzhou (Anhui) and Cangzhou show lower levels, at 0.204 and 0.211, respectively. (2) Within the high-quality development framework, Luoyang and Ningbo have achieved rapid progress in green development, exceeding 40%, while Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Hangzhou show the most significant improvements in shared development. (3) At the provincial and municipal levels, the policy’s impact on high-quality tourism economic development is not significant overall. No policy effect is observed in treatment provinces/municipalities of Anhui, Beijing, Shandong, or Jiangsu, while Hebei and Tianjin show positive effects in coordinated development, Henan in green development, and Zhejiang in shared development. This study provides a quantitative and objective understanding of the actual impacts of policy implementation on various dimensions of urban tourism economic development, offering valuable insights for governments to formulate targeted measures, adjust implementation strategies in a timely manner, and promote the high-quality development of tourism economies in cities along the Grand Canal.

As an essential link connecting human subjective perceptions with objective environmental characteristics, landscape value serves as a major criterion for evaluating the recreational potential of natural landscapes and cultural heritages. This study constructs a recreational potential evaluation system dominated by multiple landscape values from dimensions of ecology, culture, and recreation. The study adopts Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) technology, a three-dimensional coordination model, and the multivariate clustering method to study the recreational potential of the Tonghui River, a section of the Grand Canal. Key findings include: (1) the recreational potential along the Tonghui River exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity, with high-potential areas mainly being distributed along both banks of the river and in parks, museums, and other locations that are along the river; (2) Concerning landscape value clustering, five compound types of landscape values have been identified and they are culture, history, and education values-dominated, recreation, tourism, and mind-body healing values-dominated, education, aesthetics, and history values-dominated, nature, mind-body healing, and biodiversity values-dominated, and biodiversity, nature, and mind-body healing values-dominated; (3) High-potential areas show a trend of low degree of multifunctional coordination, manifesting prominent single dimension of recreation or education and relatively insufficient ecological or natural support. (4) Six measures have been proposed by the public to optimize the recreational space along the Tonghui River, including improving the ecological environment, protecting cultural resources, increasing recreational facilities, enhancing infrastructure, expanding cultural activity spaces, and regulating recreational behaviors. The study enriches the theories and methodologies for recreational potential evaluation and provides empirical references for promoting community-engaged spatial optimization and heritage revitalization.

Digital transformation has become a crucial pathway and inevitable trend driving innovative development in tourism enterprises. As an important policy instrument, government subsidies exert significant signaling effects and play guiding roles in promoting the digital transformation of tourism enterprises. From a signaling perspective, this study examines. listed tourism companies on China’s A-share market from 2001 to 2022 and investigates the impact of government subsidies on tourism enterprises’ digital transformation through keyword screening and manual verification methods. The findings indicate: (1) government subsidies actively promote digital transformation in tourism enterprises; (2) These subsidies effectively reduce information asymmetry and enhance innovation capabilities, thereby facilitating digital transformation; (3) The transformative effects demonstrate regional and corporate heterogeneity, showing more pronounced impacts in private enterprises, small-scale firms, and regions with superior governance environments. This research not only expands theoretical perspectives on corporate digital transformation but also provides valuable decision-making references for governments to optimize tourism industry policies and improve subsidy mechanisms.

With the comprehensive implementation of the policy allowing tour guides to practice independently, online-hiring tour guide services have emerged as a novel model to meet tourists' personalized demands while posing challenges to service quality supervision. This study focuses on the regulatory issues of online-hiring tour guide service quality, constructing a tripartite evolutionary game model involving government regulators, online platforms, and tour guides. System dynamics simulations were employed to analyze the evolutionary stable strategies of stakeholders and the influence mechanisms of key parameters. The findings reveal: (1) the system exhibits three potential stable strategy combinations, converging toward an ideal equilibrium where governments enforce strict supervision, platforms exercise self-regulation, and guides provide high-quality services under specific parameter conditions. (2) Government regulators’ strategy choices are influenced jointly by platforms and guides, with stricter supervision adopted when platforms lack self-regulation or guides deliver low-quality services. (3) Platforms’ self-regulation probability increases with stricter government supervision but decreases as guides improve service quality. (4) Moderately enhancing governmental rewards to platforms or strengthening penalties for low-quality services proves effective in elevating service standards. These findings provide theoretical and practical significance for establishing a collaborative regulatory framework combining government leadership, platform collaboration, and guide self-discipline in online-hiring tour guide service quality management.