Search Results (276)

The increasing tourism pressure on the UNESCO World Heritage Altai Mountains calls for efficient environmental monitoring tools. This study presents a Google Earth Engine framework that couples the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) with land use/land cover (LULC) mapping to assess ecological changes in the Lake Manzherok area between 2020 and 2025. RSEI was derived from Sentinel-2 and Landsat imagery by combining four indicators (NDVI, MNDWI, NDBSI, LST) through principal component analysis. LULC classification was carried out using Random Forest trained exclusively on Sentinel-2 spectral bands. The results confirm that RSEI effectively captures ecological gradients in complex mountainous terrain, with the first principal component explaining 57–62% of the total variance. While 92% of the study area remained stable, 5.9% showed a decline in ecological status, spatially coinciding with a near doubling of built-up and bare surfaces from 9.89 km² to 18.17 km². The largest negative RSEI changes were associated with transitions from forestland (ΔRSEI = −0.29) and grassland (ΔRSEI = −0.20) to built-up/bare land, whereas reverse transitions displayed positive ΔRSEI values. These spatial patterns are consistent with the visible development related to tourism. However, because the built-up/bare land class also includes naturally bare surfaces, and because interannual climate variability may affect the RSEI components, it is important to interpret the ΔRSEI values as relative changes rather than absolute measurements of tourism impact. The proposed framework provides a reproducible and transferable tool for monitoring ecological quality in data-scarce mountain regions, delivering spatially explicit evidence that can support conservation and land-use planning. Full article

The rapid development of the low-altitude economy is reshaping tourism activities, infrastructure provision, and landscape resource use, yet national-scale research on low-altitude tourism bases remains limited. Using data on 1247 bases in China, this study applies average nearest-neighbor analysis, kernel density estimation, and spatial inequality measures to characterize multi-scale patterns. The study further employs an optimal parameters-based geographical detector within a geographical nature framework to identify influencing factors and interactions. The results reveal significant clustering and regional inequality, with a pronounced east–west divide along the Heihe–Tengchong Line. A diamond-shaped core bounded by Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Sanya, together with its 200 km buffer zone, contains 89.17% of all bases. Domestic tourism revenue, the number of low-altitude industry enterprises, general aviation airports, national tourist resorts, and domestic tourist arrivals constitute the leading factors, although the dominant factor combinations vary across base types. Factor interactions are dominated by two-factor and nonlinear enhancement. The three natures form a coupled pathway: first nature provides environmental suitability, second nature transforms resource potential into marketable tourism products, and third nature regulates implementation. General aviation infrastructure acts as an operational interface linking environmental conditions, tourism demand, industrial support, and policy arrangements. The findings provide a basis for differentiated regional zoning and type-specific facility planning, thereby informing the sustainable development of low-altitude tourism. Full article

Responsible tourism practices are essential for sustainable tourism development, yet evidence on their implementation across different types of tourism enterprises remains limited. This study examines reported responsible tourism practices, together with the motivations and barriers influencing their implementation among tourism enterprises in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving focus group discussions with 24 participants to develop the measurement indicators and a questionnaire survey of 125 tourism business representatives and 70 employees. Descriptive analysis revealed that only a few responsible tourism practices were reported at very high levels, including employee welfare, customer protection, fair recruitment, price transparency, avoidance of legally protected wild flora and fauna, and the provision of multiple waste bins. Most economic, social, and environmental practices were reported at lower levels, indicating substantial room for improvement. The main motivations were environmental protection, long-term business sustainability, tourist satisfaction, operational efficiency, and ethical responsibility, whereas inadequate training, limited awareness, insufficient implementation knowledge, and weak institutional support were the principal barriers. These findings suggest that targeted capacity building and stronger institutional support are needed to address implementation gaps and strengthen responsible tourism practices in Kien Giang province and other emerging tourism destinations. Full article

The participating municipality plays a central role in coordinating strategic planning, resource allocation, stakeholder engagement, monitoring, and digital governance to promote sustainable tourism development. However, limited empirical evidence exists on how these governance functions collectively operate as an integrated institutional capability. This study proposed and empirically assessed Institutional Strategic Planning Capability (ISPC) as a higher-order governance construct and examined its relationships with Collaborative Governance, Smart Destination Readiness, and Perceived Sustainable Tourism Development Performance in the Provincial Municipality Daniel Alcides Carrión, Peru. The conceptual framework was developed by integrating Dynamic Capabilities Theory, Stakeholder Theory, and the municipal tourism governance literature. A quantitative, explanatory, cross-sectional research design was employed using questionnaire data collected from 120 municipal employees involved in planning, finance, tourism, infrastructure, environmental management, and administration. The proposed framework was evaluated using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5000 bootstrap resamples. The higher-order ISPC construct was empirically assessed through indicator reliability, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and higher-order construct assessment before evaluating the structural relationships, explanatory capability, and predictive performance of the model. The results demonstrate satisfactory initial measurement evidence across all constructs. ISPC exhibited significant positive relationships with Collaborative Governance and Smart Destination Readiness, while both governance mechanisms were positively associated with Perceived Sustainable Tourism Development Performance. The structural model demonstrated satisfactory explanatory power and predictive capability within the study context. The findings should be interpreted within the limitations of a cross-sectional, perception-based study conducted in a single municipality. The study contributes conceptually by proposing ISPC as an integrated higher-order governance construct and provides context-specific empirical evidence supporting evidence-based municipal tourism planning in the Peruvian context. Full article

This study examined how different forms of tourism promotional materials are associated with visual attention and factual recall under natural viewing conditions. A total of 87 participants completed eye-tracking and memory-test tasks using text-only, image-only, and mascot–text composite promotional materials across three destination contexts: Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Beijing. Visual attention was assessed using fixation duration and fixation count, and memory performance was assessed using post-viewing multiple-choice responses. In the revised analysis, attention measures were aggregated at the participant–stimulus level, and memory accuracy was analyzed using participant-item-level binary response data. The results indicated that mascot–text composite materials were associated with significantly longer total fixation duration, whereas material-type differences in total fixation count were not significant. Memory analysis indicated that text-containing materials were associated with higher factual recall accuracy than image-only materials, while text-only and mascot–text composite materials showed comparable recall performance. Rather than supporting a fixed mascot-first processing route, the study provides exploratory evidence for flexible attention allocation and attention–memory coordination in tourism promotional communication. Full article

Tourism expansion can stimulate economic activity that can potentially increase energy consumption and environmental pressures. The tourism-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (T-EKC) literature has focused mainly on CO₂ emissions and has greatly conceptualized economic growth on aggregate indicators, such as GDP. In this way, model specifications might not adequately capture the environmental effects directly associated with tourism activity. Addressing this gap, the present study examines the nonlinear relationship between tourism development and industrial-combustion CO₂ and power-industry methane emissions across Eurozone countries during 1996–2019. Unlike conventional T-EKC studies, internal travel and tourism consumption is employed as a sector-specific measure. Furthermore, primary energy consumption, an energy efficiency measure, and renewables are included in the model specifications to capture structural energy-related dynamics. The empirical analysis discloses heterogeneous relationships across pollutants. An inverted U-shaped relationship is found between tourism consumption and industrial-combustion CO₂ emissions. Methane emissions exhibit a U-shaped relationship. Causality analysis indicates a feedback relationship between tourism consumption and industrial-combustion CO₂ emissions. A unidirectional relationship running from methane emissions to tourism consumption is also justified. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that tourism-environment relationships depend on both the pollutant examined and the measurement of tourism-related economic activity. The findings highlight the need for differentiated environmental strategies that combine decoupling-oriented measures for industrial-combustion CO₂ emissions with targeted energy-sector and methane-mitigation policies to support more sustainable tourism growth. Full article

Overtourism management increasingly uses public communication to frame how visitors are expected to move, behave, and understand their responsibilities in pressured destination spaces. Yet, in heritage cities, such communication is often examined through isolated signs, etiquette campaigns, visitor advisories, or congestion notices rather than as part of a wider visitor-management communication system. This paper examines Kyoto as a case of overtourism communication in an urban heritage setting. Using document-based content analysis supported by exploratory statistical tests, it maps 64 public-facing communication artifacts published between 2016 and 2025 and codes them by message orientation, artifact type, source environment, and spatial focus. The findings show that exclusionary messaging does not dominate Kyoto’s public-facing overtourism communication within the analyzed corpus. Dispersal and behavioral guidance is the most common orientation, while restriction is targeted and secondary, and invitational place guidance remains comparatively limited. Message orientation is significantly associated with artifact type, with restriction concentrated in signs and posters and invitational place guidance appearing mainly in guides and brochures. Semi-institutional actors account for most artifacts, indicating the central role of destination-management organizations and other visitor-facing tourism bodies in translating management concerns into public guidance. Spatially, guidance-oriented communication appears broadly across the city, while restriction has its clearest place-based concentration in Eastern Kyoto, especially Gion-related areas. A smaller set of messages invites visitors to explore wider Kyoto or less conventional places beyond standard guidebook routes. Drawing on the lens of soft urban governance, the paper argues that public-facing overtourism communication can be understood as one visible layer through which visitor-management expectations are framed, spatially differentiated, and made publicly legible. As a document-based analysis, the study does not measure visitor reception, compliance, or behavioral effects, which remain priorities for future research. Full article

Tourism is an activity that contributes positively to economic growth. Although tourism should be supported because of its benefits for a region’s development, it can place a strain on the environment. Integrating the principles of sustainable development into tourism is essential to ensuring its long-term viability while protecting natural and cultural resources. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of tourism pressure, its trends, and its impact on sustainable development in three major rural tourist regions of Romania, namely Humor, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, and Dorna, located in the historical province of Bucovina, Suceava County. An analysis of the trends in the three evaluation indicators (density, duration, and pressure level) at the rural region level (Humor Region, Câmpulung Moldovenesc Region, and Dorna Region) is warranted, as these regions are the main centers of attraction and development for rural tourism in Suceava County. Between 2001 and 2023, the density indicator (arrivals/km²) showed significant increases in all three rural regions analyzed—over 6000% in Humor, 2200% in Dorna, and 2000% in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, significantly amplifying the pressure on these three areas; the duration indicator (overnight stays/km²) recorded considerable increases of over 7400% in Humor, 2400% in Dorna, and 2250% in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, proving to be a much more severe pressure indicator than the density indicator; and the pressure level indicator (arrivals/resident population) increased substantially, by over 8000% in Humor, 2100% in Dorna, and 2000% in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, indicating profound sociocultural pressure on the rural communities analyzed. The importance of this research and the originality of this study are closely linked to an understanding of the evolution and intensity of tourism pressure in the three regions analyzed, with a view to informing future strategies for sustainable rural development. An analysis of the environmental pressure caused by tourism in the three regions of Bucovina for the period 2001–2023 reflects a shift from a localized and negligible impact to an increasingly significant pressure. Currently, the regions face the challenge of balancing rapid economic development with the critical need to preserve their unique heritage. Identifying increases in tourist pressure can facilitate the implementation of effective mitigation measures, which are essential for ensuring the sustainability of tourism-related activities in the most popular tourist regions of Bucovina. Full article

Eco-compensation is not only an important supplementary source of funding for ecological conservation in national parks, but also an important mechanism through which ecological beneficiaries share the costs of national park conservation. In the context of the public welfare of national parks, free admission does not imply the absence of responsibility. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen tourists’ awareness of ecological conservation for national park management. Taking Wuyishan National Park as the study area, this study employed a questionnaire survey, distributed 630 questionnaires in total, and obtained 582 valid responses. The contingent valuation method (CVM) and a multiple-bounded dichotomous choice (MBDC) design were used to examine tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) for eco-compensation and its influencing factors: (1) The tourists’ estimated average WTP for eco-compensation in Wuyishan National Park is approximately ¥451.72, which is higher than the total cost of admission and basic experience activities in the park. It implies that tourists have a relatively high willingness to pay for eco-compensation in the national park. (2) Based on Value–Belief–Norm (VBN) theory, the hierarchical OLS regression results showed that personal norms (β = 0.636, p < 0.01), awareness of consequences (β = 0.259, p < 0.01), and ascription of responsibility (β = 0.277, p < 0.01) were positively associated with lnWTP. The strength of these associations varied across VBN dimensions, with personal norms showing the strongest positive association with tourists’ WTP for eco-compensation. (3) Income differences have a clear effect on WTP. Higher-income tourists reported greater WTP, which was more strongly associated with awareness of consequences and personal norms, whereas lower-income tourists were more responsive to environmental values and ascription of responsibility. This study identifies an association between tourists’ environmental responsibility and willingness to pay for eco-compensation in the context of national park tourism. The findings offer empirical support for policy measures to regulate tourist behavior, enhance national park revenue, and reinforce the public welfare function of national parks. Full article

Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects are increasingly affecting Mediterranean coastal cities, where climate change, urbanization, and seasonal tourism intensify thermal stress and environmental vulnerability. In this context, climate-oriented planning and green infrastructure are recognized as key strategies for urban adaptation. This study investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and vegetation cover in the coastal municipality of Lignano Sabbiadoro (northeastern Italy) through the analysis of Landsat imagery acquired between 1984 and 2023. Summer LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps were derived from June–August observations and used to assess long-term thermal dynamics, vegetation patterns, and Urban Heat Island development. Meteorological data indicate a significant increase in mean annual air temperature, with a warming trend of approximately 0.57 °C per decade between 1984 and 2023. Correspondingly, Landsat-derived LST maps reveal a marked intensification of summer surface temperatures, with mean summer LST increasing from 32.16 °C in 1984–1993 to a peak of 35.91 °C in 2004–2013, followed by a slight decrease to 35.77 °C during 2014–2023. During the same period, the proportion of municipal surfaces characterized by temperatures above 35 °C increased from 10.7% to more than 60%, while cooler areas (<30 °C) declined from 17.7% to 2.3%. The comparison between LST and NDVI patterns revealed a persistent inverse relationship between vegetation cover and surface temperature, with coastal pinewoods, green spaces, and water bodies consistently exhibiting lower thermal values than densely urbanized sectors. A key methodological contribution of the study is the operational integration of satellite-derived thermal remote sensing into the Green Plan of Lignano Sabbiadoro. LST mapping was used to identify priority areas for climate adaptation measures, including ecological corridors, wooded landscape connections, urban green corridors, and depaving interventions. The results demonstrate how multi-temporal thermal analysis can support evidence-based planning by linking climate assessment with the spatial prioritization and design of green infrastructure strategies. The proposed workflow provides a transferable framework for integrating remote sensing into climate-informed planning processes in Mediterranean coastal cities and other urban contexts increasingly exposed to heat-related risks. Full article

Rural tourism destinations increasingly converge on standardized facilities and packaged landscapes, eroding the place-based distinctiveness that motivates rural travel. Although previous research has distinguished affective and cognitive experiential mechanisms, it remains unclear whether these pathways are differentially associated with sustainability-oriented and loyalty-related behavioral intentions. Addressing this gap, the present study examines how tourists’ perceptions of rural destinations are associated with these two forms of behavioral response. Building on the established distinction between affective and cognitive experiential mechanisms, two perceptual systems are linked to parallel affective and cognitive experiential routes to examine their distinct behavioral associations. An affective route, in which perceived locality and authenticity foster place attachment, and a cognitive route, in which perceptions of planning quality foster tourist satisfaction, are expected to specialize by outcome. Survey data were collected from 411 visitors to rural tourism destinations in Hainan, China, and analyzed using a latent-variable structural equation model with bias-corrected bootstrap tests of competing indirect effects. The results reveal a clear distinction between the two behavioral systems. Locality and authenticity are positively associated with place attachment, which in turn is associated with sustainable behavioral intention, whereas planning quality is positively associated with tourist satisfaction, which is associated with revisit and recommendation intention. The competing-mediation analysis further indicates that locality is associated with sustainable behavioral intention primarily through place attachment rather than satisfaction, and this affective pathway remains consistent across visitor-origin subgroups. Given the cross-sectional design, these relationships should be interpreted as associations rather than evidence of causality. The findings re-conceptualize locality as a measurable tourist perception and demonstrate that sustainability-oriented behavioral intention and loyalty-related intention represent distinct behavioral outcomes associated with different experiential pathways. For destination planners and managers, the findings suggest that strengthening authentic rural character may support sustainability-oriented behaviors, whereas improving the planning and service environment may encourage revisit and recommendation intentions. Full article

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays a key role in shaping lake microbiomes and water quality, yet its spatial variability and regional links to microbial activity remain unclear. Using three-dimensional excitation–emission matrix and self-organizing map analysis on 38 samples from a human-impacted lake network in Hubei (affected by tourism, agriculture, and urban areas), this study clarifies DOM heterogeneity and its environmental connections. Microbial metabolic activity represented by total bacterial content (BC) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) activity was rapidly and automatically measured with a ColiMinder device. Random forest (RF) modeling and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to identify key drivers of microbial activity and to clarify correlations between DOM characteristics and microbial activitiy. Results indicated that although DOM in all three sectors primarily originated from microbial activities during the flat-water period, Tuanhu (TH) exhibited a higher degree of DOM humification and a larger average relative molecular mass, reflecting stronger terrestrial source characteristics. RF analysis identified NH₄⁺ as the main predictor of both BC and E. coli levels, while total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) were also important predictors. PCA further revealed clear differences in DOM composition across the lakes. DOM in TH was predominantly autochthonous, whereas DOM in Miaohu (MH) and Guozheng (GZ) was mainly of humic origin. This study adopts an integrated method combining rapid microbial detection, EEM and DOM–microbe correlation analysis to analyze human disturbances across segmented connected lakes in Hubei. It provides scientific support for targeted water quality management of human-influenced freshwater. Full article

Food festivals have become important instruments of regional tourism development, destination branding, agricultural promotion, and cultural policy. Yet the authenticity of food festivals is often evaluated through visitor perception or promotional discourse, leaving limited room for scalable assessment across large festival systems. This study develops a Location Quotient (LQ)-based framework for measuring agricultural embeddedness as a supply-side structural condition that can support objective material authenticity claims. Using a dataset of 277 South Korean regional food festivals, the study examines how featured food materials are connected to regional agricultural specialization and how this structural connection compares with budget scale, infrastructure, and material-duplication factors in explaining administrative visitor attendance and portfolio-level governance patterns. The results show that agricultural embeddedness is unevenly distributed across the national festival portfolio. Festival budget is the strongest predictor of log-transformed visitor attendance, whereas agricultural embeddedness is not significantly associated with visitor attendance after budget and infrastructure controls are included. Material-level duplication is useful as a portfolio diagnostic for identifying crowded food categories where place-product credibility may become strategically important. Scenario-based portfolio comparisons provide planning benchmarks suggesting that targeted restructuring and reallocation would be associated with higher average agricultural embeddedness under specified portfolio assumptions, although these scenarios should not be interpreted as causal forecasts. The study contributes to food tourism, event governance, and destination branding research by offering a reproducible way to assess the material grounding of food festival authenticity claims and by shifting policy discussion from festival proliferation toward portfolio quality. Full article

The increasing complexity of marine spatial management and the rapid growth of nautical tourism require the use of formal and transparent decision-making models. Identifying optimal locations for nautical anchorages is a multi-criteria decision problem (MCDP) in which navigation safety, spatial constraints, and environmental protection often conflict. This study presents an integrated framework combining Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods for the systematic evaluation and ranking of nautical anchorages. As a case study, 86 potential locations in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia, were analysed based on 18 criteria encompassing hydrological, meteorological, and spatial factors, as well as risk factors relevant to navigation safety. The methodological approach applies six MCDM methods implemented in the R programming language: Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), ViseKriterijska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Rjesenje (VIKOR), Multi-Objective Optimisation on the Basis of Ratio Analysis (MOORA), Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS), Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (MARCOS), and Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS). To reduce methodological bias, a final Consensus rank was calculated to synthesise the results of all applied methods. The stability of the obtained ranking was examined through an analysis of rank agreement between methods, using a diagonal matrix of rank overlaps and the corresponding heatmap visualisation. The results indicate a high level of consistency among individual MCDM methods and strong stability of the final consensus ranking. The proposed model ranks locations from best to worst based on how well they meet the established criteria, while ensuring strict navigational safety and compliance with environmental constraints. These findings confirm that the integrated GIS–MCDM approach is a reliable, repeatable, and scientifically grounded tool for supporting spatial planning and concession allocation in the development of nautical infrastructure. Full article

As one of the key vehicles to integrating culture and tourism in urban and rural development, cultural tourism-oriented characteristic towns are increasingly facing natural and social disaster risks caused by global climate variability, large-scale expansion of town areas, and intensified human engineering activities. In particular, characteristic towns that have rapidly developed through tourism based on historical and cultural heritage face challenges such as compact layouts of ancient architectural complexes, extensive outward expansion of newly developed areas, and inadequately planned emergency evacuation systems—making them ill-equipped to cope with increasingly uncertain disaster risks. In response to these issues, this study takes Zhangguying Town in Yueyang County, Hunan Province, as a case study. Through field investigations, interviews, and GIS-based hydrological simulations, the research systematically identifies the characteristics and influencing factors of disaster risks in the town. It also reveals the core dilemmas confronting current disaster prevention planning and proposes strategies such as enhancing chain disaster prevention measures, promoting micro-scale, site-specific disaster prevention retrofitting, and establishing a multi-scale disaster prevention system through “point-line” linkages. By reducing disaster risks, preserving cultural heritage, and optimizing emergency response capacities, this research effectively supports the sustainable development of cultural tourism-oriented characteristic towns from a disaster prevention perspective, enabling these towns to withstand natural hazards while sustaining their historical, cultural, and socio-economic functions. The findings provide a theoretical basis and methodological reference for comprehensive disaster prevention planning in similar cultural tourism-oriented characteristic towns. Full article