ABSTRACT In MICE tourism, unique venues play a crucial role in shaping the image and brand of a host city by showcasing the inherent charm of the city. Although the popularity of unique venues has increased due to their ability to offer distinctive originality and memorable experiences to event participants, research on unique venues has been scarce. Focusing on the MICE industry in Xi’an, China, this study aims to identify the potential resources of unique venues and suggest collaborative strategies for the sustainable development of unique venues. To do so, this study adopted a qualitative approach by conducting in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including event organizers, convention and meeting venue providers, government officials, and participants. In stakeholder interviews, four main themes were emerged: 1) exploring the perceived potential benefits of unique venue, 2) strengths of Xi’an in utilizing unique venues, 3) challenges in utilizing unique venues in Xi’an, and 4) developing strategies for the sustainable development of unique venues. The findings provide meaningful theoretical contributions to achieve a comprehensive understanding on the interconnections between the MICE industry, cultural tourism, and destination marketing. This study also discussed practical implications to develop unique venues for city branding in Xi’an.

ABSTRACT One facet through which Europeans encounter Chinese people is by assuming the role of hosts for Chinese tourists. The critical examination of Western perceptions of China is important due to its inherent connection and impact on international political and economic relations. Consequently, this study aimed to examine the Western perception and understandings of Chinese tourists, using the case of Switzerland. Based on a comprehensive set of data and by combining qualitative insights with quantitative analysis, this paper explores the dynamics of different word associations made by participants. The study was able to show that the ‘Swiss gaze’ on Chinese tourists was in general rated as positive or neutral. Still, a critical discussion of the responses points to a minimal but notable presence of underlying themes of Orientalism and othering. The results are relevant both for academia, contributing to a better understanding of the issue of the image of China abroad, as well as for the tourism sector at large, which must increasingly consider the ‘host-visitor-relationship’ and the acceptance of tourists by residents’ communities when designing and governing offers and services.

ABSTRACT The guided tour industry in China has evolved much since the turn of the century, with many new developments that have caused tremendous changes of Chinese tourists’ travel patterns. The pandemic has further accelerated the evolution in addition to technological advancement. While Chinese tour guiding studies continue to flourish, little is known about how this realm of knowledge production has evolved. The current article presents a bibliometric analysis of 117 peer-reviewed articles related to Chinese tour guiding from January 2000 to April 2025. The findings indicate that ‘guides’ service quality,’ ‘satisfaction,’ ‘performance,’ and ‘behavior’ remain hotspots in Chinese tour guiding research while ‘covid-19,’ ‘storytelling’ and ‘artificial intelligence’ are emergent research spheres. The paper also demonstrates how ‘covid-19,’ ‘artificial intelligence,’ and their convergent impact may have influenced the Chinese tour guiding industry and related research. Such findings supplement the existing review papers by highlighting the evolving production of knowledge in a Chinese tour guiding context.

ABSTRACT China’s hotel and tourism industries have transformed dramatically in past decades, captivating travelers from across the globe. The COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019 significantly disrupted these sectors. Now, with the world having entered the post-pandemic era, this research examines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) facing China’s hospitality and tourism landscape through the lens of 79 hotel professionals. We conducted focus group interviews to explore these individuals’ experiences and performed a SWOT analysis. The findings inform recommendations to facilitate the hospitality industry’s development and adaptation to a new normal. These insights offer actionable guidance for industry to align strategic investments with emerging trends, fostering resilience and sustained growth in a rapidly changing market environment.

ABSTRACT Migrant entrepreneurs are a prominent force in shaping the sustainability of tourism destinations, especially those in remote areas. While the role of time in place-related behaviors is well acknowledged, few studies track changes in migrant entrepreneurs’ responsibility practices over time. Drawing on interviews with 30 small tourism entrepreneur migrants (STEMs) in a Chinese island destination, this study examines polarized divergence in STEMs’ responsible practices. Along with environmental degradation resulted from rapid tourism development on the island, STEMs show enhanced energy saving and natural assets protection behaviors, yet weakened daily environmental behaviors. Similarly, they show strengthened commitments to local cultural heritage, yet reduced local employment commitments and diminished community engagement. These trajectories are shaped by migrants’ pragmatic thinking, the social distance between migrants and islanders, and social norms on the island, with the latter two highlighting the significant role of the island context in shaping their responsibility practices.

ABSTRACT This research delves into the intricacies of Knowledge Management (KM) and Organizational Learning (OL) within the context of a rural village in China, using King’s Knowledge Management model as a foundational framework. This study adopted a mixed-method design using qualitative analysis of a focus group involving seven knowledge agents and in-depth interviews with seven village families, complemented by quantitative analysis of a survey among 148 visitors to the village. While this study affirms the applicability of King’s KM model in the examination of rural tourism development, it underscores the necessity of incorporating distinctive elements such as unlearning, absorptive capacity, and dynamic capabilities to tailor the model effectively for sustainable rural tourism development. The findings contribute fresh empirical insights on adapting knowledge management to achieve sustainability objectives in the distinct landscape of rural tourism development and rural heritage preservation in China.

ABSTRACT As a unique form of ambidextrous leadership in China, authoritarian‑benevolent leadership, recognized for enhancing adaptability in dynamic industries, such as hospitality, can also yield unexpected results. Using the lens of Social Exchange Theory’s rank equilibrium norm, this study investigates the impact of such leadership on employees’ psychological entitlement and their subsequent pro‑customer rule breaking behaviors, which improve their job performance for self‑serving goals. Data were collected from 306 front‑line employees in the hospitality sector through a four‑wave survey. The findings reveal that psychological entitlement mediates the link between authoritarian‑benevolent leadership and pro‑customer rule breaking, which enhance performance yet conflict with organizational goals. Moreover, a strong performance climate amplifies this mediated pathway, underscoring a moderated‑mediation effect. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of authoritarian‑benevolent leadership and its complex effects in a dynamic service environment. It also offers practical strategies for hospitality managers to align leadership practices with organizational objectives, emphasizing clear communication and expectations to manage rule breaking behavior effectively. These insights hold important implications for leadership in the hospitality industry and broader service sectors.

ABSTRACT Customer experience is rarely interpreted from an unconscious perspective, despite its proven constant influence on how individuals think, feel, and act. Drawing on the psychoanalytic and cognitive theories of the unconscious mind, this study takes theme hotel as the research context and proposes a theoretical framework to portray the process of customer experience formation from the unconscious mental processing way. Based on Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) interviews, this study identifies that the core mechanism of the formation is the network of associations constituted by four interrelated dimensions that are associative memories, associative fantasies, and unconscious affective state and unconscious behavioral reactions. This study aims to put a missing piece back into the puzzle of customer experience conceptualization.

ABSTRACT As women become more self-aware, challenging outdoor hikes that combine physical and mental exercise are becoming increasingly popular leisure activities. Although the transformative power of hiking for women is widely recognized, the role and function of women’s bodies in this context have been relatively neglected. Building on this perspective, this study examines women’s body movements in hiking tourism to provide theoretical insights into the relationship between the body and women’s experiences in the tourism sector. This study employs a combined approach of constructivist grounded theory and feminist embodied phenomenology to show that, in hiking, women’s bodily movements exhibit both intrinsic and transcendent qualities, generating unique embodied experiences through interactions with the outdoor environment. These experiences not only contribute to the formation of women’s subjectivity but also hold profound sociocultural significance in shaping body image, discourse, and social space.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the therapeutic experience literature and the therapeutic landscapes theory, this research seeks to construct a novel scale to assess tourists’ therapeutic experience at Chinese Buddhist temples (TECBT). This study conducted a literature review and semi-structured interviews with 15 participants, which generated an initial pool of measurement items. Through expert review, a final set of 30 items was developed. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) conducted on 322 samples refined the scale, resulting in 25 items categorized into five experience dimensions: nature, sensory, social, ritual, and spiritual. We utilized 328 samples to examine the overall model fit and verify the convergent and discriminant validity. Criterion-related validity and nomological validity were tested using 340 samples. The relationship between TECBT and two psychological outcomes – psychological recovery and life satisfaction – was tested. The five-dimensional TECBT scale represents a pioneering initiative to measure the therapeutic experience at Chinese Buddhist temples. This study advances temple tourism research and provides practical insights for temple administrators. The study pioneered a direction for future interdisciplinary research at the nexus between temple practices and therapeutic experience.