In an era marked by accelerated globalization, informatization, and digital economy development, digital nomads as a group that practices a new mode of production and lifestyle characterized by remote work and high mobility, have rapidly emerged, profoundly impacting global labor market, tourism industry, and policy systems. Drawing on literature from the database of Web of Science, this study systematically reviews the trajectory of international research on digital nomads from 2003 to 2024. It identifies three major developmental stages: the “Technological foundation period” (2003-2013), the “Lifestyle and identity formation period” (2014-2019), and the “Institutional response and critical deepening period” (2020-2024). Current scholarship has expanded beyond remote work to encompass community formation, spatial practices, and institutional adaptation, reflecting growing interdisciplinary complexity. The study highlights key implications for contextualization within China: (1) from the conceptualization aspect, a tripartite typology of high-mobility, regional-mobility, and long-term-residence digital nomads was constructed to better capture the low mobility and deep local embeddedness observed in China. (2) From the community research aspect, revealing the “rurality turn” in Chinese digital-nomad clusters and highlighting the emerging pathway of “digital nomads + rural revitalization,” with particular attention to how online-offline coordination and local social networks shape settlement stability and community governance. (3) From the policy-making aspect, a national-level, integrated institutional design was advocated that aligns identity recognition, social-security portability, and tax coordination to address systemic barriers faced by digital nomads. Thus, this study constructs an integrated conceptual framework for digital-nomad research and helps to fill key gaps in theoretical paradigms, comparative evidence, and policy tools within the Chinese scholarly landscape.

Necessity and sufficiency analysis aids in deciphering complex tourism management phenomena. However, its theoretical application and technical implementation in empirical research remain significantly inadequate, often leading to misuse. This paper systematically reviewed and critically evaluated the literature on necessity and sufficiency within tourism research. The study reveals that: (1) existing research heavily concentrates on tourist behavior, extending to resident behavior, employee behavior, and economic management; however, analyses of necessity and sufficiency for key entities such as tourism destination systems and macroeconomic levels remain markedly insufficient. (2) Methodologically, while fsQCA is widely adopted alongside NCA to assess necessity, confusion in method integration and operational irregularities persist in their combined application. (3) Variable selection predominantly relies on behavioral theories, while explanations for nonlinear combinations of multiple antecedents and complex causal relationships primarily draw upon complexity and chaos theory. However, research has insufficiently analyzed the interactive mechanisms among antecedent variables. Future studies should not only deepen the focus on necessity analysis but also extend necessity and sufficiency analyses to broader topics. Additionally, efforts should be made to refine analytical frameworks and strengthen theoretical foundations.The integrated theoretical framework constructed in this paper provides an operational methodological guide and a deepened theoretical perspective for future exploration of the relationship between necessity and sufficiency in the tourism field.

Tourist green consumption behavior is a critical pathway for achieving sustainable tourism development. This study systematically reviews relevant literature in both Chinese and English and, from the theoretical perspective of a “dynamic process and closed-loop system”, proposes a three-stage conceptual core for tourist green consumption behavior. It clarifies the influencing factors at each stage to explain the transition mechanisms between them, thereby constructing an integrated research framework. The main findings are as follows: (1) tourist green consumption behavior is a dynamic concept characterized by feedback cycles, which can be divided into three stages: “Intention → Behavior → Aftereffect.” (2) The development of this behavior is influenced by multiple internal and external factors, and its evolution materializes as a three-stage transformation mechanism: “Attitude-Behavior Translation → Behavior Maintenance → Intention Regeneration.” (3) The integrated research framework of “theoretical perspective, conceptual definition, influencing factors, and outcomes” for tourist green consumption behavior takes the “three-stage, three-transformation” process-mechanism as its logical thread. It incorporates multiple behavioral theories, such as the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory, to explain its transformation processes, and employs a mixed-methods approach for validation. Consequently, this study provides a systematic approach to overcome the fragmented perspectives prevalent in existing research, offering significant insights for deepening the theoretical understanding of tourist green consumption behavior and guiding managerial practices.

Given the increasing demand for professional tourism planners, many peers without tourism-education background have turned to tourism-planning operations. This study explores the generalized pathway of “cross-disciplinary knowledge updating” by interviewing 25 tourism planners focusing on their “learning-by-doing” experiences. The research findings indicate: (1) the knowledge updating process for cross-disciplinary tourism planners typically goes through three stages: “methodological”, “epistemological” and “ontological” knowledge updating. The objective of knowledge-updating in these stages can be respectively viewed as matching existing planning tools with tourism-specific needs at the micro level, understanding the operational logic of tourism businesses at the meso-level, and balancing multi-value orientations of tourism development at the macro level. (2) At each stage, the primary motivation for cross-disciplinary knowledge update stems from perceived knowledge gaps encountered while undertaking planning projects at different scales. Planners must engage in a contextualized “acquisition-absorption-application” process to better addressing perceived knowledge gaps and spontaneously re-build corresponding tourism-planning knowledge systems. (3) Whether tourism planners can upgrade knowledge systematically from “layman” to “expert” status depends on their ability across different stages to: Accurately identify professional knowledge gaps and locate appropriate knowledge sources, adopt suitable strategies to translate and absorb new knowledge, and employ suitable strategies within multi-stakeholder bargaining frameworks to validate, apply, and disseminate new knowledge. This study proposes a cross-disciplinary knowledge updating process for tourism planners, providing theoretical and methodological support for cultivating cross-disciplinary talents in the practice of multi-industry integration.

Tourist satisfaction is a crucial prerequisite for the sustainable development of tourism destinations. Exploring the relationship between cultural distance and tourist satisfaction at over-tourism destinations can provide valuable insights for sustainable management. Drawing on cultural distance theory and place attachment theory, this study takes Dunhuang as a case and collected 287 valid tourist questionnaires. Using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis, the study examines the mechanisms linking tourists’ perceived cultural distance, place attachment, travel expectations, and satisfaction at over-tourism destinations. The findings indicate that: (1) tourists’ perceived cultural distance positively influences both place attachment and satisfaction significantly. (2) Place attachment mediates the relationship between perceived cultural distance and tourist satisfaction. (3) Travel expectations positively moderate the relationship between perceived cultural distance and place attachment. The study contributes theoretically by clarifying the pathways through which cultural distance affects satisfaction at over-tourism destinations and offers practical recommendations for enhancing place attachment, meeting tourist expectations, and managing visitor flows, thereby offering policy recommendations for sustainable tourism development in China’s over-tourism destinations.

The differentiation of technical rules on social media platforms has reconstructed the narrative power structure of tourist destinations, undermined the authoritative status of traditional official narratives, and formed a pattern of coexistence, interaction, and dynamic interplay between official narratives and diverse user-generated narratives on the platforms, thus giving rise to a new phenomenon of destination image conflict. Taking Hongyadong in Chongqing as a case study and employing grounded theory methodology, this study examines platform-native content data from three major platforms: WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, aiming to explore the evolutionary mechanism of tourist destination image conflict across differentiated social media platforms. The findings reveal that: (1) the differentiation of platforms’ technical rules reconstructs the narrative power structure, triggering significant conflicts between the official narratives of destinations and user-generated narratives on the platforms in terms of narrative objectives, forms, and functions. (2) Driven by the traffic logic, a disjuncture emerges between the external forms and internal meanings of destination cultural symbols, leading to the “symbol dilution” that gradually strips away of their deep cultural connotations. (3) Amplified by algorithmic recommendations, the disordered symbolic system ultimately results in “cognitive fragmentation” among tourists. This study innovatively constructs the “Platform-driven image conflict evolution model” (P-S-C Model), which systematically unveils the generative mechanism and evolutionary path of the vulnerability of tourist destination images in the digital context. It provides a novel analytical framework for understanding cross-platform image conflicts and advances destination image governance from unilateral control to adaptive collaboration.

With the deep integration of digital technology and ancient town tourism, tourist experience has taken on a new form blending the “virtual” and the “real”. This study integrates embodied cognition theory, social identity theory, and the theory of planned behaviour. Employing a mixed-methods approach combining questionnaire surveys with fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), it investigates how the prosocial behaviour of ancient town visitors is influenced by digital tourism experiences, authenticity experiences, and their interaction. It further reveals the chained mediation and configurational pathway mechanisms. Findings indicate: (1) both digital tourism experiences and authenticity experiences positively influence prosocial behaviour among ancient town visitors, with authenticity exerting a greater impact than digital experiences. (2) Digital tourism experiences and authenticity experiences generate a mutually reinforcing positive interaction, collectively enhancing visitors' prosocial behaviour. (3) The aforementioned interactions influence visitors’ prosocial behaviour through chained mediating pathways involving place identity and self-efficacy. (4) The driving mechanisms of visitors’ prosocial behaviour comprise three configurational pathways: “dual experience-place identity”, “digital tourism experience-place identity-self-efficacy synergy”, and “authenticity experience-place identity-self-efficacy synergy”. This study transcends singular experiential perspectives to reveal the interactive effects of dual virtual-real experiences on tourists’ emotions, cognition, and behaviour, alongside their mediating mechanisms. Employing mixed-methods research to identify multi-configurational driving pathways, it provides theoretical underpinnings and practical insights for the digital development of ancient towns, authenticity preservation, and the guidance of tourist prosocial behaviour.

In the context of green transformation and “co-construction and sharing”, clarifying the coupling effect and coordination mechanism of ecotourism and common prosperity is not only a crucial issue for ecotourism to align with the rural revitalization strategy and advance urban-rural common prosperity but also an inherent requirement for promoting high-quality development of ecotourism. Taking Fujian Province as a case study, this paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation system for ecotourism and common prosperity, and adopts the Improved Analytic Hierarchy Process (IAHP) - entropy weight method - coupling coordination - grey correlation model in order to analyze the coupling coordination effect of ecotourism and common prosperity in Fujian Province from 2010 to 2019. The results show that: (1) during the research period, the degree of coupling between ecotourism and common prosperity in Fujian Province has continuously advanced from a relatively low-level coupling state to a higher-level one, with the degree of coupling coordination going through four stages, namely moderate imbalance with double-low indices, gradual growth with relatively low indices, primary-medium coordination with moderate indices and sound coordination with a priority on common prosperity. (2) Factors such as per capita local general public budget revenue, the participation rate of basic endowment insurance, the ratio of per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents, the urbanization rate, the density of the highway network, the forest coverage rate, and the number of ecological tourism demonstration zones at or above the provincial-level play a leading role in the coupled and coordinated development of ecotourism and common prosperity in Fujian Province. (3) Developing ecotourism is an effective means to promote urban-rural common prosperity, and achieving common prosperity provides a power source for ecotourism. Ecotourism is a common form for realizing the value of ecological products, while common prosperity is the outcome of such value realization. (4) Innovating the mechanism for developing financial resources,making up for the shortcomings of rural public services, enhancing the appeal of “lucid waters and lush mountains”, and promoting the value realization of ecological products are effective ways to improve the level of coupled and coordinated development between ecotourism and common prosperity. The research findings of this paper hold both theoretical and practical significance for better enhancing the income-increasing and poverty-alleviating effects of ecotourism and making solid progress toward common prosperity.

In the digital era, the co-evolution of multiple systems has become critical for regional. Based on the complex system theory and synergy theory this paper takes 14 cities in Guangxi as a case study, and comprehensively applies kernel density estimation, the improved coupling coordination degree model, and the Panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model to depict the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the digital economy, the cultural and tourism industry, and ecological civilization, as well as to reveal the coupling coordination and dynamic interaction mechanism among them. The results show that: (1) the three systems exhibit an overall upward development trend, yet with significant internal disparities, presenting a spatial pattern of “higher development level in the north and south regions and lower level in the east and west regions”. (2) The coupling coordination level has transitioned from severe imbalance towards weak coordination, but remains at a low level overall. Most cities are still in a state of imbalance, revealing disequilibrium in regional synergy. This characteristic is primarily influenced by the interplay of multiple factors, including population quality and economic development. (3) The system interaction demonstrates a complex mechanism coexisting with both synergy and trade-offs. A virtuous cycle of continuous mutual benefit has been formed between the cultural and tourism industry and ecological civilization. While driving the development of cultural and tourism sector, the digital economy shows a certain inhibitory effect on the ecological conservation in the short term. This reflects current structural challenges in the digital transformation process, such as insufficient internalization of ecological costs and the absence of well-established long-term synergy mechanisms. Following the analytical logic of “characteristics - causes - mechanisms”, this study uncovers the structural and institutional causes underlying the synergistic evolution of multiple systems, which provides a theoretical reference for understanding the coordinated evolution of diverse complex systems and offers empirical evidence for regional sustainable development and policy collaborative governance.

As an important component of modern service sector, the exhibition industry plays a significant role in promoting economic growth and upgrading the tourism sector. Using the data of 4 865 exhibition enterprises located within Beijing’s Sixth Ring Road from 2000 to 2023, this study applies geospatial analytical techniques, the $Getis-Ord\mathrm{ }{G}_{i}^{\mathrm{*}}$ statistic, and the geographical detector model to examine the spatial distribution patterns of exhibition enterprises and their influencing factors. The results indicate that: (1) during the study period, exhibition enterprises in Beijing exhibit a pronounced spatial agglomeration, following a typical evolutionary trajectory from “single-center agglomeration” to “multi-center diffusion,” and subsequently to “localized re-agglomeration,” resulting in a “core-periphery” coordinated structure characterized by a “multi-core + dispersed” pattern. (2) The spatial evolution of exhibition enterprises is closely associated with the distribution of major functional nodes, such as Olympic venues and the Beijing sub-center, as well as the implementation of strategic policies including the “relocation of non-capital functions,” reflecting strong path dependence and policy-driven dynamics. (3) Living services and transportation services are the direct core factors shaping the spatial distribution of exhibition enterprises, with their interaction producing a nonlinear enhancement effect, whereas economic foundations and production services act as indirect factors by exerting influence through interaction with other factors. From the perspective of spatial governance, this study enriches the theoretical understanding of service-sector agglomeration in mega-cities and provides a scientific basis for optimizing the spatial layout of the exhibition industry. Future efforts should focus on strengthening policy guidance, improving foundational support systems, and innovating coordination mechanisms to further optimize the spatial structure of exhibition enterprises, achieve deep structural integration between the exhibition industry and urban development, as well as synergistic enhancement in operational efficiency.

With the development of the economy and society and the improvement of people's living standards, the health awareness of the country and its people has kept increasing. Health and wellness tourism, as a form of travel activity that can effectively improve physical and mental health, has now gained popularity among many tourists. To further explore the intrinsic driving factors of the travel intentions of health and wellness tourists, this study introduces the Health Belief Model (HBM) to construct a health and wellness tourism travel intention model that includes action cues, health beliefs, self-efficacy, and travel intentions. The model is empirically tested by combining the structural equation model with the qualitative comparison of fuzzy sets. The research finds that: (1) action cues, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy are the core variables driving the willingness to travel for health and wellness tourism. (2) Both internal and external action cues have a significant positive impact on health beliefs, and health beliefs play a mediating role between action cues and travel intentions; however, among health beliefs, only perceived benefits show a significant positive effect on travel intentions, while the rest are not significant. (3) Self-efficacy not only has a direct impact on the willingness to travel, but also serves as an important moderating variable between health beliefs and the willingness to travel. (4) Three paths driving the willingness to travel for health and wellness tourism were identified though configuration analysis, namely, external cue dominant type, external cue collaborative type, and internal cue avoidance type. The research has refined and extended the applicability of the health belief model in the field of health and wellness tourism, confirming that health and wellness tourism decisions rely more on “external information”, “benefit expectations” and “execution confidence” rather than merely “risk avoidance”, providing an important reference for the marketing practice of health and wellness tourism.

Scientifically assess the perception of cultural ecosystem services (CES) value is crucial to the sustainable development of national parks. Taking Wuyi Mountain National Park as a case study, this research employs the “subject(human)-landscape(national park)-perception(CES)” theoretical framework of landscape perception ecology. Integrating Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) with geospatial data, questionnaire survey, and online User-Generated Content (UGC), it systematically identifies the spatial characteristics and multidimensional driving mechanisms of tourists’ perceptions of 6 CES value types through GIS spatiotemporal analysis, semantic segmentation, and sentiment analysis. The findings reveal: (1) CES perceptions in Wuyishan national park exhibit a “dual-core radiation and gradient decay” spatial pattern, with Jiuqu Stream’s natural landscape as the primary hot spot and the Dahongpao Tea Garden-Tianxin Yongle Temple cultural landscape as the secondary hot spot. (2) Overall, tourists prioritize recreational and aesthetic values over spiritual and religious values, with young-middle-aged adults and females demonstrating more sensitive to the latter two. (3) Combinations of natural elements drive aesthetic perception, combinations of cultural elements shape spiritual perception, and the “cultural elements + natural substrate” model exhibits stronger driving effects. (4) Positive emotions reinforce value recognition in primary areas, while negative emotions overlap with management-deficient regions, indicating the regulatory role of emotional feedback on spatial patterns. From a process-based perspective, we propose a transmission chain of “landscape combination - subject difference - emotional feedback - spatial pattern”, clarifying the spatial differentiation and formation mechanism of CES perception, enriching the theoretical perspective on national park CES spatial research, and providing scientific support for ecological protection and refined management.

The improvement of transportation infrastructure and the popularization of private cars have profoundly influenced the spatial distribution of tourists generating markets to destinations. From the perspective of destination reception, this study collects data related to different transportation modes in Fenghuang ancient town. Using geospatial analysis methods, it compares and analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of tourists generating markets arriving via self-driving and public transportation. The findings reveal that: (1) there are significant differences in the spatial distribution of primary and secondary markets between self-driving and public transportation tourists. (2) The spatial distribution of self-driving tourists is relatively broader, showing a “core-periphery” pattern of areal expansion southeast of the Huhuanyong Line, whereas public transportation tourists exhibit a scattered patchy distribution. (3) As the spatial distance from the ancient town increases, the share of self-driving tourists gradually declines, while that of public transportation tourists follows an inverted “V” shape, first increasing and then decreasing.The attraction radius of self-driving tourists (480 km) is significantly smaller than that of public transportation tourists (1 200 km). The geographical concentration of both tourist types is relatively low, and both follow a rank-size distribution. (4) Both tourist types are most strongly influenced by information flow intensity. Furthermore, self-driving tourists are more significantly affected by geographical distance, whereas public transportation tourists are more sensitive to the resident population size and income level of the tourists generating regions. The findings contribute to deepening the theoretical understanding of the relationship between transportation modes and tourist spatial distribution and provide a reference for tourism destinations to formulate targeted marketing strategies.

Against the backdrop of the vigorous development of rural tourism, rural socio-cultural space is facing potential risks such as functional fragmentation and cultural disjunction, This study introduces actor-network theory and uses Nanshe Village in Dongguan as a case to systematically analyze the mechanism through which the network of actors in rural tourism drives the reconstruction of social and cultural space. The results show that: (1) the development of the actor-network in Nanshe Village has generally undergone three stages: the government-led single-actor phase, the market-driven multi-actor phase, and the multi-collaborative network formation phase. (2) In terms of the characteristics of spatial reconstruction, it presents the feature of coordinated evolution across material, spiritual, and social dimensions：in the material space, ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties have achieved preservation, revitalization, and infrastructure upgrading, with spatial functions transforming from meeting daily life needs to serving cultural inheritance and economic development; in the spiritual space, cultural and emotional connections have been enhanced, and a value system centered on the culture of filial piety and virtue has been gradually constructed, achieving the elevation of the cultural core values; in the social space, community cohesion has been improved, promoting the integration and interaction between culture and economy. (3) In terms of spatial reconstruction mechanisms, five mechanisms, policy guidance, capital incentives, deep community participation, local collaboration, and normative constraints, interact synergistically to promote the reconstruction of the socio-cultural space in Nanshe Village. The research findings not only enrich the theoretical studies on rural socio-cultural space reconstruction but also provide practical insights for the revitalization of socio-cultural aspects in tourism-oriented villages and the sustainable development of tourism.

Financing efficiency is pivotal to the core competitiveness and sustainable development of the capital-intensive cruise industry. This paper utilizes panel data from Royal Caribbean Group (RCL), Carnival Corporation (CCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) spanning 2002-2023, employing the DEA-Malmquist model to analyze the impact of financing efficiency on operational performance.(RCL), Carnival Corporation (CCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) from 2002 to 2023. The DEA-Malmquist index model was employed to measure total factor productivity (TFPCH), while the Bootstrap truncated regression method was used to identify factors influencing financing efficiency. This study explores the financing efficiency of major global cruise companies, its dynamic evolution patterns, and key influencing factors. The study finds: (1) the industry’s average annual TFP during the observation period was 0.984, indicating a slight decline in financing efficiency. (2) The evolution of cruise companies’ financing efficiency exhibits phased characteristics: from 2002 to 2008, influenced by credit tightening and the financial crisis, industry financing efficiency remained persistently low; from 2009 to 2019, it generally recovered but showed significant fluctuations, with technological progress as the core driver; From 2020 to 2023, the industry faced severe shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic, experiencing a brief rebound in 2021 due to digital upgrades before facing renewed pressure. (3) Regression analysis indicates that epidemic shocks exert a significant negative impact on financing efficiency, while economic crisis shocks show a marginal negative effect. Market share has a significant positive promoting effect, whereas firm size exerts a significant negative influence. The article’s marginal contribution lies in its pioneering integration of these two methodologies to systematically analyze financing efficiency in the cruise industry, revealing its dynamic patterns and influencing factors. This provides a new perspective for financial resource allocation in capital-intensive industries and offers empirical evidence and management insights for emerging cruise enterprises to optimize financing structures and balance scale with efficiency.