Search Results (157)

With the arrival of an aging society and the continuous extension of the human lifespan, the quality of life has not improved in a corresponding manner. People’s demand for happiness and health is increasing. As a result, a model emerged that integrates tourism and medical services, which is health tourism. This growing demand has prompted many service providers to see it as a business opportunity and enter the market. Tourism can help travelers release work stress and restore physical and mental balance; meanwhile, health check-ups and disease treatment can help them regain health. Consumers have long favored health and medical tourism because it helps relieve stress and promotes overall well-being. As people age, some consumers experience a gradual decline in physical functions, making it difficult for them to participate in regular travel services provided by traditional travel agencies. Therefore, this study aims to explore the service needs of health and medical tourism customers (tourists/patients) and the interrelationships among these service needs, so that health and medical tourism service providers can develop more customized and diversified services. This study identifies four key drivers of medical tourism services: medical services, medical facilities, tour planning, and hospitality facilities. This study uses the APA (attention and performance analysis) method to assess each dimension and criterion and utilizes the DEMATEL method with the NRM (network relationship map) to identify network relationships. By combining APA and NRM techniques, this study develops the APA-NRM technique to evaluate adoption strategies and identify suitable paths for health tourism services, providing tailored development strategies and recommendations for service providers to enhance the service experience. Full article

The global rise in urban-related health issues poses significant challenges to public health, particularly in cities facing socio-economic crises. In Lebanon, 70% of the population is experiencing financial hardship, and healthcare costs have surged by 172%, exacerbating the strain on medical services. Given these conditions, improving the quality and accessibility of green spaces offers a promising avenue for alleviating mental health issues in urban areas. This study investigates the psychological impact of nine urban public spaces in Beirut through a comprehensive survey methodology, involving 297 participants (locals and tourists) who rated these spaces using Likert-scale measures. The findings reveal location-specific barriers, with Saanayeh Park rated highest in quality and Martyr’s Square rated lowest. The analysis identifies facility quality as the most significant factor influencing space quality, contributing 73.6% to the overall assessment, while activity factors have a lesser impact. The study further highlights a moderate positive association (Spearman’s rho = 0.30) between public space quality and mental well-being in Beirut. This study employs a hybrid methodology combining Research for Design (RfD) and Research Through Designing (RTD). Empirical data informed spatial strategies, while iterative design served as a tool for generating context-specific knowledge. Design enhancements—such as sensory plantings, shading systems, and social nodes—aim to improve well-being through better public space quality. The proposed interventions support mental health, life satisfaction, climate resilience, and urban inclusivity. The findings offer actionable insights for cities facing public health and spatial equity challenges in crisis contexts. Full article

As health and well-being become central concerns in the post-pandemic tourism landscape, health tourism is evolving to prioritize not only physical recovery but also psychological engagement and emotional value. This study explores how gamified design can enhance tourist participation and experience quality within health-related tourism contexts. By integrating theories from tourism psychology and game-based experience design, a structural equation model is proposed to examine the relationships among memorable tourism experiences, tourist motivation, game design elements, flow experience, and perceived value, and their joint influence on behavioral intention. Data collected from tourists who engaged in gamified experiences were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The results identify a dynamic “participation–immersion–value” mechanism, in which gameful design fosters flow and perceived value, thereby mediating gamification’s impact on behavioral intention. These findings offer valuable insights for health tourism developers and experience designers seeking to create emotionally engaging, motivating, and sustainable visitor experiences in the context of health and well-being. Full article

Urbanization drives spatial restructuring that transforms landscapes to prioritize human health. Grounded in therapeutic landscape theory and tourism involvement theory, this study employs PLS-SEM and CMV to examine how landscapes affect individual health amid urbanization. Key findings reveal the following: (1) A model of urbanization for tourists’ perceived health confirms urbanization enhances health perceptions via therapeutic landscapes. (2) Therapeutic landscape perceptions exert an indirect effect on health perception through the mediating variable of tourism involvement, where tourism psychological involvement demonstrates a complete mediating effect, while tourism behavioral involvement exhibits a partial mediating role. (3) High urbanization exerts a more pronounced positive influence on natural and social landscapes compared to symbolic landscapes. Notably, elevated urbanization levels significantly strengthen the positive association between natural/social landscapes and perceived health benefits. Under low urbanization, health perception does not demonstrate significant enhancement with elevated landscape perception. This study fills a critical research gap by quantitatively investigating, from a micro-scale perspective, how therapeutic landscapes enhance tourists’ health within urbanization contexts in Eastern settings. Furthermore, it extends the theoretical framework of tourism involvement in health tourism contexts, advances tourism and leisure research, and provides scientific support for sustainable tourism development and tourists’ well-being enhancement. Full article

This research proposes a framework for Eudaimonic well-being in destination competitiveness. This framework is based on the theoretical Ritchie and Crouch’s model (1993, 2000, 2003) and the recent theoretical notion that a travel trip may influence life satisfaction through tourists’ experiences. We conducted a qualitative study based on 34 in-depth interviews with key tourism stakeholders in Cape Verde, a small island developing country (SIDS) dependent on the tourism sector. The findings contribute to identifying specific sources of positive and negative effects that may affect the tourists’ and residents’ overall sense of well-being and thus affect the overall destination competitiveness. Full article

Shark ecotourism is an ever-expanding reality, with hundreds of thousands of tourists involved annually. Although it represents a fundamental tool for sharing the urgent need to safeguard sharks with the public, the implications for the health and well-being of sharks must be taken into due consideration. In South Africa, cage-diving has been an important form of ecotourism since the 1990s. In Gansbaai, over a 14-year period from 2009 to 2024, excluding the 2020–2021 pandemic years, data was collected from cage diving operators’ boats on the frequency of sightings of white sharks. After approximately 560 h of field observations, averaging about 45 h per year and about 9 h per year between 2023 and 2024, 423 sharks were observed with five re-sightings. We highlighted that the number of sightings did not increase during the presence of cage diving operators and that site fidelity has not been observed by white sharks frequenting this area. Full article

This study examines the key factors that influence tourists’ perceptions of destination quality and loyalty in the context of adventure tourism in Santa Elena, Ecuador, an emerging destination in Latin America. A quantitative approach was used, with data collected through an online questionnaire completed by 318 participants. Structural equation modeling was conducted using SmartPLS 4 to examine the relationships between motivational constructs (intellectual curiosity, health assurance, stress relief, physical condition, and social connection), perceived destination quality, and loyalty. The findings reveal that health assurance (β = 0.395, p < 0.001), stress relief (β = 0.417, p < 0.001), and intellectual curiosity (β = 0.143, p = 0.010) significantly influence perceived destination quality, while social connection and physical condition did not show significant effects. Moreover, perceived destination quality strongly predicts tourist loyalty (β = 0.634, p < 0.001). The model explains 63.5% of the variance in destination quality and 48.1% of that in loyalty. These results highlight the importance of post-pandemic health concerns, emotional well-being, and intellectual engagement as drivers of satisfaction and loyalty in adventure tourism. While existing research has largely focused on motivations and quality perceptions in adventure tourism within developed regions, studies in post-pandemic settings across Latin America—especially using validated structural models—remain scarce. This study also contributes to filling a gap in the literature by analyzing post-pandemic tourist behavior in Latin America, an underexplored context in existing research on sustainable and adventure tourism. The findings offer theoretical contributions to the field of adventure tourism and practical recommendations for destination managers seeking to enhance their competitiveness and visitor retention in the post-pandemic context. Full article

Health and wellness tourism is a rapidly expanding segment of the global tourism industry, driven by increasing consumer awareness of well-being and lifestyle enhancement. As the demand for wellness travel grows, destinations are expected to offer high standards of safety, hygiene, rehabilitation, and holistic experiences. This study aims to identify and evaluate the key attributes and determinants for developing health and wellness tourism destinations by applying the 6As Tourism Development framework: Attractions, Accessibility, Amenities, Activities, Available Packages, and Ancillary Services. A multi-criteria decision-making approach, specifically the TOPSIS, was employed to assess destination potential through a case study of Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand. The results indicate that Attractions, Accessibility, and Amenities are the top three priorities for wellness tourists. Sub-criteria such as natural scenery, cultural significance, accessibility for all, safety, and accommodation quality are particularly influential. Three districts in Nakhon Ratchasima were found to exhibit distinct strengths—Pak Chong is best suited for rehabilitative tourism (e.g., aroma and water therapy), aligning with mind and nutrition wellness components; Wang Nam Khiao is ideal for ecotourism and cultural experiences, supporting environmental and nutritional dimensions; while Mueang Nakhon Ratchasima excels in sports tourism, supporting physical and nutritional well-being. The study offers practical insights for policymakers and tourism stakeholders to design sustainable, visitor-centered wellness destinations. The proposed framework supports strategic planning and resource allocation for health-focused tourism development. Full article

Tourism urbanization has become an important pathway for promoting regional economic growth, optimizing urban spatial structures and enhancing residents’ quality of life, especially in the context of sustainable development. Balancing the relationship between tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being in China’s Central Plains Urban Agglomeration is a key objective for the promotion of sustainable regional development in the context of rapid tourism development. However, few studies have quantitatively explored the spatiotemporal coupling dynamics between tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being at the urban agglomeration scale, leaving a significant gap in understanding their integrated evolution. Therefore, in this study, we constructed an evaluation index system for tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being. Next, we explored the coupling relationship between tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being and its influencing factors in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration from 2005 to 2022 via the coupling coordination degree and random forest approaches. The study’s three major findings are as follows: (1) First, in terms of development level, the tourism urbanization of the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration from 2005 to 2019 generally showed a steady upwards trend, and the well-being of residents as a whole showed a steady development trend; however, there were significant regional differences in the level of development. The spatial differentiation between tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being was characterized by “high in the west and low in the east” and “high in the middle and low in the surroundings”, and the degree of spatial differentiation tended to gradually narrow over time. (2) In terms of the level of coupling coordination, the overall coordination between tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration increased annually and reached the stages of running-in and high coordination. (3) The key factors affecting the coupled coordination of tourism urbanization and residents’ well-being in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration differed significantly over time. The importance of the number of tourists, policy support, and fiscal balance ratio increased significantly over time, whereas the importance of the vegetation index and the distance to the nearest provincial capital city decreased. These findings have valuable implications for urban planning, governance optimization, and the formulation of sustainable development strategies, highlighting the need to strengthen resilience and promote synergistic growth between tourism development and residents’ well-being. Full article

Scientific site selection for urban parks is an important way to increase urban resilience and safeguard people’s well-being. Aiming at the lack of systematic consideration in the traditional park siting research, this study utilizes geographically weighted regression to explore the various characteristic factors affecting the spatial distribution of parks, and based on this, combines the random forest model and the interpretable model to accurately assess the potential of parks on urban land in Shenzhen and provide the basis for site selection. The study indicates that: ① Shenzhen’s parks exhibit complex differentiation characteristics in terms of natural landscape elements and the intensity of economic activities; ② The geographically weighted random forest (GWRF) model has better learning and generalization capabilities compared to the random forest (RF) model, and the average accuracy of the GWRF model is improved by 0.04 compared to the traditional RF model; ③ The park’s development potential is divided according to the results of the GWRF model, with 52.01% denoted as the potential incubation zone, 21.15% the potential accumulation zone, 8.25% the potential growth zone, and 18.59% the potential core zone; ④ Through interpretability analysis, it is identified that vegetation coverage, the density of tourist attractions or points of interest (POI), slope, elevation, and nighttime light intensity are the most significant factors affecting park development potential, while the distance to roads and the distance to bodies of water are the least influential factors. The research systematically explores a quantitative evaluation framework for the development potential of Shenzhen’s parks, opening new theoretical pathways and practical paradigms for the sustainable development planning of Shenzhen under the “Park City” concept. Full article

The tourism sector thrives on a comprehensive understanding of the factors that motivate individuals to explore new destinations. Identifying the push and pull factors that drive travel decisions is essential for analyzing tourist behavior and recognizing the external constraints that tourism enterprises and destinations must consider. Adopting a sustainable approach to these motivational forces underscores the need to balance tourism growth with the preservation of destinations, the well-being of local communities, and responsible travel practices. Push and pull factors in tourism are inherently linked to the emotional states that travelers experience throughout the decision-making process, from the initial intention to travel to the post-trip evaluation. The sector prospers by understanding the reasons that inspire individuals to discover new places. Determining these motivational factors is crucial for comprehending tourist behavior and addressing the external limitations that tourism businesses and destinations must navigate. A sustainability-focused approach highlights the significance of aligning tourism growth with destination preservation and community well-being, ensuring a responsible and enduring tourism model. This study aims to examine the impact of positive and negative emotions on push and pull motivational factors across different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting a sustainability perspective. The research was structured into four empirical studies: (i) pre-pandemic phase, involving a sample of 508 tourists; (ii) pandemic phase, with data collected from 507 participants; (iii) post-pandemic phase, comprising 488 respondents; (iv) comparative analysis, assessing variations across the three periods. The results indicate that emotional states exert a significant influence on push and pull motivational factors, with variations observed depending on the period of data collection: before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while emotions exhibited fluctuations across the three phases, push and pull factors demonstrated relative stability over time. These findings emphasize the critical role of emotional experiences in shaping travel motivations, highlighting the interplay between psychological drivers and destination attributes. This understanding is essential for tourism businesses and policymakers to develop strategies that align with evolving traveler expectations while promoting sustainable and responsible tourism practices. Full article

Analyzing the overall trend of changes in the well-being of Chinese tourists and its relationship with societal transformations is essential for understanding the psychological shifts of these tourists. This study utilizes cross-temporal meta-analysis and a time-lagged approach to examine 56 studies employing the General Well-Being Scale as the principal tool for evaluating the well-being of Chinese tourists from 2011 to 2022, with the objective of ascertaining whether trends in well-being levels among Chinese tourists and their macro-social indicators clarify discrepancies in tourists’ well-being. The results demonstrate a strong positive link between the well-being of Chinese tourists and the year, signifying an annual increase. The well-being of Chinese tourists is markedly positively associated with economic conditions (per capita income and consumption levels) and social connectedness (urbanization rate, employment rate, and life expectancy); these five social indicators are essential determinants of its variations. This study contributes by elucidating the trend of well-being among Chinese tourists at the group level and confirming that five categories of social variables significantly influence their well-being. It can aid destinations in enhancing relevant social and economic policies, inventing tourism products, and accelerating the development of the tourism industry, thereby substantially boosting the well-being of Chinese tourists. Full article

Historically renowned for its industrialization, Northwestern Italy is undergoing significant economic transformations after the late 20th century deindustrialization, whose profound impacts present challenges for the development of sustainable approaches to the territory’s urban and rural memoryscapes revitalization. This paper critically analyzes three cases in Ponte Lambro, Sesto San Giovanni, and Genoa, whose industrial histories allow for studying how industrial heritage-making projects can promote socioeconomic opportunities and tourism, balancing community well-being, conservation needs, and social inclusion. The study focuses on what heritage is meant to achieve and how the past and its ties are retroactively “constructed” more than on the material constitution of heritage, examining the initiatives’ contribution to long-term social, cultural, and environmental sustainability. It also applies the analytical method proposed by Muzaini and Minca (2018) to evaluate the inhabitants’ involvement in the heritage-making process. Findings suggest heritage valorization contributes to the creation of complex collective identities and territorial regeneration, although management contradictions and challenges emerge, such as the absence of an integrated and participatory approach. This shows the complexity of heritage-making processes, fluctuating between new meanings, the risk of marginalizing relevant aspects of local memory, the need for sustainable preservation, and the challenges of its touristic and economic consumption. Full article

Forest environments have been demonstrated to promote human health and well-being through rich sensory experiences. However, the mechanisms by which olfactory experience affects visitors’ mental health remain to be thoroughly researched, and discussions on emotional resilience, a key competency affecting an individual’s mental health, are particularly rare. To address the challenges of high subjectivity, difficulty in quantifying, and high context-dependency of olfactory experience and emotional resilience in such studies, large language models were introduced to study the National Forest Parks in China and analyse massive user-generated data. This provided new possibilities for constructing a more comprehensive theoretical paradigm of olfactory experience–emotional resilience. The findings indicate that olfactory experiences in National Forest Parks exert a substantial influence on tourists’ emotional resilience, with diverse olfactory experiences demonstrating a more pronounced impact on emotional resilience compared to a single type of olfactory experience. However, this impact exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship. Natural environment olfactory experiences were found to be more conducive to attention restoration, while artificial environment olfactory experiences were more likely to induce nostalgic feelings. This study found that nostalgic feelings significantly mediated the relationship between artificial environment olfactory experience and emotional resilience, while attention restoration did not significantly mediate the relationship between natural environment olfactory experience and emotional resilience. This provides a novel perspective on the examination of the complex relationship between forest environments, olfactory experience, and emotional resilience. Semantic analyses revealed the complexity and network characteristics of olfactory experiences in National Forest Parks, and at the same time identified four main types of olfactory experiences and scenarios. This research offers valuable insights for forest recreation and leisure management, as well as public health policy development. Full article

The existing literature on environmentally responsible behavior in tourists focuses primarily on the factors that influence this behavior, such as tourists’ attitudes and negative feelings. However, the intrinsic benefits of conservation for individual and societal well-being are often overlooked. Under the theoretical lens of self-expansion theory, this study examined the influence of Chinese tourists’ tourism autobiographical memory on their environmentally responsible behavior using a questionnaire survey (N = 434) with partial least squares structural equation modeling. The result attested that tourists’ self-expansion and psychological richness serially mediate the association between their tourism autobiographical memory and environmentally responsible behavior as a tourist. In addition, the implicit theories of personality moderate the prediction of tourist autobiographical memory on self-expansion. The results provide an additional explanation for environmentally responsible behavior in tourists, with practical implications for marketers and operators in the industry. Full article