Urban Regeneration, Tourism Scenario Innovation, and Inclusive Urban Tourism

Dear Colleagues,

Urban tourism has become a core driver of urban economic vitality and cultural heritage inheritance, while urban regeneration serves as a crucial strategic measure globally to address issues such as urban spatial decline, functional obsolescence, and uneven social development. The 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China explicitly proposed to "adhere to the connotative development of cities, vigorously implement urban regeneration, and build innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized, and smart modern people-oriented cities," giving direction to the concept of high-quality urban development. Currently, with the rapid development of digital technologies and the upgrading of consumer demands, urban tourism is embracing the dual opportunities of "the emergence of new scenarios" and "digital empowerment-driven transformation." New scenarios such as metaverse virtual tourism, urban micro-tourism, and health and wellness tourism are continuously expanding the boundaries of tourism, while technologies including big data, artificial intelligence, and digital twins provide new tools for optimizing tourism services and innovating tourism scenarios.

Against the backdrop of global urban transformation, the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the construction of a Digital China, this Special Issue aims to explore the interactive mechanisms, practical paths, and academic frontiers of urban regeneration, tourism scenario innovation, and inclusive urban tourism. We welcome scholars from interdisciplinary fields (e.g., tourism management, urban planning, geography, sociology, cultural studies, and digital technology) to contribute empirical research, theoretical discussions, and case studies that will enrich academic dialog and provide references with both theoretical value and practical significance for urban governance and high-quality tourism development.

We welcome submissions in, but not limited to, the following areas:

1. Urban Regeneration and Tourism Scenario Activation

• Tourism-driven activation paths for historical districts, industrial heritage sites, and enduring residential areas in the context of urban regeneration;
• Innovative development of new urban tourism scenarios—model design for urban micro-tourism, health and wellness tourism (integrated with urban public health resources), and metaverse virtual tourism;
• Enhancement of tourism value in urban public spaces through digital empowerment—exploration of tourism value in urban public spaces, and practical applications of optimizing tourism experiences via big data-based passenger flow monitoring and intelligent service terminals;
• Case studies on post-industrial cities or resource-exhausted cities achieving economic and social regeneration through "digital + tourism scenarios";
• Balancing strategies for tourism scenario development and urban regeneration—paths to avoid "tourism gentrification" and coordinate commercial operations with community development.

2. Digital Empowerment and Urban Tourism Service Innovation

• Practical applications of big data and artificial intelligence in urban tourism itinerary planning, intelligent guided tours, and personalized services;
• Explorations on the application of digital twin technology in urban tourism scenario simulation, passenger flow diversion, and emergency management;
• Technical paths for constructing virtual tourism scenarios using metaverse technology and the linkage mechanism with physical tourism scenarios;
• Construction and operation of urban tourism digital platforms—strategies to improve service efficiency and optimize tourist experiences;
• Innovative applications of digital technology in urban tourism marketing—case studies on urban IP building and precision communication.

3. Tourist Behavior Research in the Context of Urban Regeneration

• Changes in tourists’ consumption preferences, spatial mobility characteristics, and experience demands in new tourism scenarios after urban regeneration;
• Intergenerational differences in tourist behavior in digitally empowered scenarios;
• Influencing factors and cultivation paths of tourists’ environmental responsibility behavior in urban tourism scenarios;
• Characteristics of tourists’ emergency behavior and guidance strategies in urban tourism scenarios during public emergencies;
• Behavioral differences among cross-cultural tourists in new post-regeneration urban tourism scenarios (e.g., cultural adaptation and consumption habits) and corresponding service adaptation.

4. Practical Paths and Mechanisms of Inclusive Urban Tourism

• Barrier-free design and service provision for urban tourism scenarios targeting vulnerable groups;
• Policy support and institutional design for inclusive urban tourism—standard formulation, benefit-sharing mechanisms, and supervision and guarantee systems;
• Mechanisms for community participation in inclusive urban tourism development—the role and paths of residents in tourism planning, operation, and benefit distribution;
• Practice of inclusive urban tourism from the perspective of cultural diversity—tourism expression and the sharing of ethnic culture, immigrant culture, and marginalized group culture;
• Construction of an evaluation system for inclusive urban tourism—measurement methods and practices from dimensions such as accessibility, equity, and satisfaction.

5. Challenges and Countermeasures for Sustainable Urban Tourism Development

• Climate resilience construction of urban tourism scenarios: adaptive design and operation strategies under extreme weather conditions;
• Low-carbon transformation paths for urban tourism—low-carbon practices in tourism transportation, accommodation, and consumption links;
• Protection of cultural heritage in urban tourism development—strategies to balance tourism development and cultural inheritance;
• Management of urban tourism carrying capacity—avoiding the negative impacts of excessive tourism on urban ecological and social environments;
• Collaborative development of cross-regional urban tourism—practical explorations in resource integration, service interconnection, and brand co-construction.

Prof. Dr. Ping Yin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Urban Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.