Scenic Area Research Articles

Navigating adaptive cycles to understand destination complex evolutionary process

ABSTRACT There is a recent surge to unfold the tourism destination's intrinsic nature as a complex adaptive system, such as the dynamic and scale interactions among tourism system components and its environment. As the world gets more uncertain, it becomes more critical to understand how dynamic and complex interactions shape the destination's resilience and its evolution process. Yet, such is under-explored. Taking the East Suburb Coconut Trees scenic area in Hainan (ESCT), China, as a case, this study adopts adaptive cycle heuristics to shed light on the critical evolution mechanisms. This study shows that ESCT had undergone two adaptive cycles, suffered three shocks, and experienced interaction mode from external enterprises-led to interdependent development mode and, finally, local-oriented mode. During this process, the destination's resilience changed from vulnerable to absorptive and, finally, rigid. There is no reorganization stage between the two cycles, which resulted in a limited increase in the destination's resilience. The increasing local involvement built absorptive capability but also locked the destination into a rigidity trap in the long term. This study is the first to reveal the role of resilience in understanding complex system interactions and the destination evolution process. Practical implications for resilient destination management are provided.

Research on Seasonal Thermal Neutral Temperature in West Lake Scenic Area of Hangzhou, China.

The thermal neutral temperature is the foundation for the evaluation of the outdoor thermal environment sensation. This study is designed to investigate the thermal neutral temperature of the outdoor space of Hangzhou West Lake. Both the median method and the thermal sensation vote (TSV) = 0 methods are adopted to discuss the seasonal thermal neutral temperature, thermal neutral temperature range, and thermal acceptable temperature range of the youth group with college students in Hangzhou as representatives. Via the analysis of the relationship between TSV and thermal evaluation index PET, the median method, which proved more suitable for the study site, is selected to obtain the thermal evaluation results. It's found from the study that, throughout the year, the thermal neutral temperature of Hangzhou West Lake scenic area is 21.0 °C; the thermal neutral temperature range is 12.0-23.9 °C, and the acceptable thermal temperature is 13.0-25.7 °C. The youth group visiting Hangzhou West Lake has the highest acceptance of the thermal environment in spring and autumn and the lowest in winter. Furthermore, the empirical models show that air temperature and average wind speed are the key factors impacting the thermal evaluation of the youth group. This study can serve as a reference for thermal evaluation in similar climate regions.

Detecting the Spatial Matching Relationship between Supply-Side and Demand-Side of Recreation Ecosystem Services (RES) from the Perspectives of Resource, Management, and Beneficiary: A Case Study in Yangmingshan National Park

Recreation ecosystem services (RES) link closely to human well-being and might mutually benefit biodiversity conservation while well managed. However, assessing and detecting the spatial matching of RES remains challenging. This study considered the nature of RES supply-side and demand-side in assessing and detecting the spatial matching relationship from the resource, management, and beneficiary perspectives. The proposed method consisted of assessment and overlay analysis parts. RES Supply Potential and Recreation Accessibility were assessed from the resource and management perspectives. RES Demand Potential, RES Flow, and RES Match/Mismatch were assessed from the beneficiary perspective. An overlay analysis was then conducted to examine the spatial relationship between the RES Match/Mismatch and the resource supply and management status to provide specific management information for protected areas. For the Yangmingshan National Park (YNP) in Taiwan, as a case study, this study revealed four RES Match/Mismatch levels in YNP, including MM+2 (RES Demand Potential ≫ RES Flow), MM+1 (RES Demand Potential > RES Flow), M (RES Demand Potential ≈ RES Flow), and MM−1 (RES demand Potential < RES flow). Only 5.51% of YNP belonged to M, where the areas’ RES Demand Potential were close to RES Flow and mainly located in Zone SA (Scenic Area). MM−1, where the areas were over-visited, accounted for 7.12% and were mainly located in Zones SA and EUA (Existing Use Area). As a protected area, most areas of YNP were with high RES Supply Potential; and were mainly located in MM+2 (70.87%) and MM+1 (16.50%), where the areas’ RES Demand Potential much greater or greater than RES Flow and the Recreation Accessibility were low. MM−1 were the areas where the managers should first launch actions to avoid or minimize over-visited impacts. The proposed method could detect RES Match/Mismatch rationally and directly and obtain multiple spatial datasets to support decision-making.

Inheritors’ Happiness and Its Relevant Factors in Intangible Cultural Heritage

In recent years, more and more ICH (intangible cultural heritage) has been introduced into scenic areas. As the creators and disseminators of ICH, inheritors are invited to teach ICH skills in these areas. According to the PERMA model (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement), we conducted several interviews with the inheritors of ICH in scenic areas to explore their authentic happiness in terms of the modes by which they inherited and propagated ICH (as individuals, in studios or in companies) and the factors influencing authentic happiness. The findings show that: (1) in general, ICH inheritors reported high levels of authentic happiness in all five dimensions of the PERMA model; (2), for engagement with work, interpersonal relationships, perception of meaning and sense of achievement, the ways in which the inheritors experienced these four dimensions differed greatly depending on the inheritance mode; (3) the main factors affecting the authentic happiness of the inheritors were personal feelings, social attention, policy benefits and economic benefits. (4) inheritors, intangible culture heritage and tourism form an inseparable system, they promote and interact with each other. This paper provides a new perspective for the further development of both ICH inheritors and cultural heritage tourism.

The effects of forest therapy on public mental health and circular economy: A policy support model in Japan.

Forest therapy has gained popularity in Japan and even other nations/regions due to its health benefits. In addition, forest therapy has contributed to the development of circular economy and industrial upgrading. Japanese successful practice can serve as a model for other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. To this end, the aim of this study was to determine whether forest therapy can improve the whole well-being of the participants and has a positive effect on the development of circular economy in the region. Both empirical and inductive research methods were used; empirical approach was conducted to perform comparative analysis of regional data that was retrieved from the research project of Japanese Forestry Agency in 2015. Specifically, the efficacy of forest therapy on physical (blood glucose, blood pressure, body weight) and mental (sleep quality e.g.,) health outcomes among 815 participants was investigated. Regional data are from the statistics of Iiyama City from 1990 to 2005. After the concept of forest therapy became popular in the late 1990s, this element had a great positive impact on the economic benefits of Ishiyama City and other major forest scenic areas. We summarize and analyze a series of policies made by relevant departments of the Japanese government in the years from 2019 to 2021 to promote forest therapy and related circular industry development. Significant (pre-to-post participation) changes in physical measure was observed. Firstly, mean weight of those overweight participants decreased across three different time points (pre-test/enrollment = 79.7 kg, 3-month participation = 77.2, and 6-month participation = 76.8 kg), while overall mean weight of the participants decreased to 61, 60.5, and 60.4 kg, respectively. Secondly, Participant with normal weight showed a decrease on mean HbA1C (from 6.09 to 6.06) at Week 24, while overweight participants demonstrated a slight change 6.03-6.01 after 6 months the average HOMA-IR for overweight participants decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 at Week 24, while participants with normal weight demonstrated a decrease from 2.2 to 1.7 at Week 24. Forest Therapy has emerged in Japan since Mid-1990s and has attracted a large number of tourists all over the world due to its unique health benefits. Forest therapy in Japan has positive effects on whole well-being of Japanese residents and it has helped public mental health promotion and economic growth. Under the guidance and support of government policies, it can promote the development of circular economy and industrial transformation and set a model of Japanese forest therapy development for other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Assessing the Cultural Ecosystem Services Value of Protected Areas Considering Stakeholders' Preferences and Trade-Offs-Taking the Xin'an River Landscape Corridor Scenic Area as an Example.

Improving the accuracy of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) value assessment and paying more attention to the preferences and trade-offs of stakeholders in the administration of CESs are of vital importance for achieving resilient ecosystem management. Combining methodologies from sociology (Q method) and economics (choice experiment), an assessment framework of CESs is introduced to examine stakeholders' preferences and willingness to pay to participate in CESs in protected areas so as to explore how the value of CESs in protected areas can be optimized. The results show that the selection of CESs by stakeholders reflects certain synergies and trade-offs. Visitors can be classified as preferring humanistic-natural recreation, aesthetic-sense of place, or environmental education according to the factor ranking of the Q method. Visitors have a higher willingness to pay for humanistic heritage and a lower willingness to pay for sense of place experience, which can be measured at $6.55 per visit and $0.96 per visit, respectively. This indicates that the local customs and characteristics should be further explored and promoted through traditional festival celebrations and farming activities in further development of protected areas, apart from protecting local cultural heritages such as Huizhou ancient villages and halls. Furthermore, it is also necessary to actively explore the synergistic development of CESs, promote social participation, raise stakeholders' awareness of available services, manage visitors and stakeholders from a demand perspective, and promote the realization of the value of ecological products in protected areas.

The Evaluation and Key-Factor Identification of the Influence of Tourism on the Soil of Mount Tai

Tourism has been proven to disturb the soil environments and stimulate heavy metal accumulation in scenic areas. Currently, research on the driving mechanisms of the impact of tourism on soil quality degradation is limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to introduce a complex network method to comprehensively depict the impact of tourism on soil quality. To explore the key influencing factors, we collected 10 topsoil samples and 10 corresponding control samples from representative scenic areas in Mount Tai. Soil physicochemical properties (organic matter (OM), alkali dispelled nitrogen (AN), total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), electrical conductivity (EC)), heavy metal (Cr, Cd, Pb, Hg, As, Cu) content, and microbial community diversity (by Eco-plate method) were analyzed. Additionally, complex networks of soil quality variables were established based on Pearson correlation coefficients. The results show that the OM, AN, and AP contents of scenic areas are 1.2, 1.03 and 1.18 times higher, while the AK content is 0.97 times lower, than those of the control sites, respectively (mean values of samples from scenic area vs. contorl sites). The single factor index of Hg, As, Pb, Cd, Cu, and Cr are increased from 3.65, 0.53, 0.85, 1.25, 0.78 and 0.58 to 3.69, 0.57, 1.24, 1.75, 0.97, 0.63 and 3.19, respectively, which means that tourism significantly exacerbates soil heavy metal accumulation. Additionally, the soil microbial activity and diversity are slightly reduced due to tourism. In general, the difference in the mean value of each soil quality variable between the scenic spot and the control site is not significant. However, tourism significantly reduced the connectivity and integrity of soil quality variables, which ultimately destabilized the soil, inferred from the comparison of the network’s topological parameters. Therefore, raising the content of soil OM and AN and controlling Cd pollution should be given more priority in soil ecosystem protection to counteract the negative impact of tourism on Mount Tai. It was the major limitation of the study that few typical scenic spots were selected as sampling points on Mount Tai. However, this study is sufficient to show that the complex network approach can be extended to other similar studies of soil quality degradation driving mechanisms.

Research on Innovation Strategy and Design of Tourism Service Experience in the Construction of Oujiang Scenery Poem Route

There are four poetry routes have already planned in development framework of poetry culture in Zhejiang province, one of which lies in Oujiang. Service experience is now becoming a center of cultural construction as continuous working progress facilitating this poem route access to a good future. This paper applies the concept of service design to the construction of Oujiang Scenery Poem route tourism, taking the core area of Daluoshan Scenic Area as the object of practice. Through field research on the existing tourism services in the area, insight into the service contact points and user pain points in the touring scenario, and finally proposes the tourist-centred tourism service innovation strategy and design practice. The research found that there are four major problems in the tourism services of Daluoshan Scenic Area: lagging infrastructure, loose management order, confusing guidance system and weak heritage interpretation. Based on this, this paper constructs a leisure tourism service design scheme for Daluoshan, which integrates online and offline scenario experiences to optimise the flow and experience of the scenery poem route tourism, which will provide a useful reference for promoting the construction of the Oujiang poetry route tourism.

Occurrence, Distribution and Ecological Risk Assessment of Contaminants in Baiyangdian Lake, China

Understanding the ecosystem risk of contaminants in the surface water of lakes in scenic areas is important for environmental management. Here, a comprehensive ecological risk assessment evaluation method was established to assess the ecological risk of 14 water quality indicators of Baiyangdian Lake in the spring, summer, and autumn. The results show that the indices of ammonia nitrogen and permanganate exceed the Class III standard limit for water quality. Baiyangdian Lake is generally in a state of mesotrophication, and some areas are slightly eutrophic; the degree of eutrophication is higher in the summer and autumn than in the spring. The lake water at the inlet is eutrophic and polluted, with an inferior water quality. Heavy metals are almost not detected in Baiyangdian Lake. The heavy metal pollution indices of Nanliuzhuang and Caiputai are slightly higher than those of other areas. The ecological risk quotient of petroleum is high. The comprehensive ecological risk of the Baiyangdian Lake is at Level 4, owing to the continuous development of aquaculture and tourism in recent years. We should start the monitoring, management, and strengthening of water quality supervision to achieve the ecological and environmental planning goals of Baiyangdian Lake.

Zoning scenic areas of heritage sites using visibility analysis: the case of Zhengding, China

ABSTRACT The preservation of historical architecture not only protects the specific building site but also preserves the surrounding historical setting. However, unassigned and vast historical settings are considered extremely delicate in terms of conservation. The formation of a Scenic Area provides a legal method of protecting the historical setting of cultural heritage sites in China. Additionally, scientific zoning of the Scenic Area can create zones for restricting construction and development. This article shows the process of rationally determining the Scenic Areas analyzing the visibility of Geographic Information System (GIS), taking the example of the seven National Heritage Sites (NHS) in Zhengding County, China. The objects of the visibility analysis included five high-rise architectural heritage buildings: pagodas and towers from the seven NHS and three other viewing points on the city walls to observe these sites. The results revealed several highly sensitive areas between the architectural heritage sites, in addition to the predicted areas of concerns near heritage sites. Therefore, the Scenic Areas were zoned as large connected areas by combining the spaces between the NHS. This study will help achieve rational zoning for sustainable conservation and development of high-rise cultural heritage sites forming a historical urban landscape.

Urban Lake Scenic Protected Area Zoning Based on Ecological Sensitivity Analysis and Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Chaohu Lake Basin, China

The protection of urban lakes is important for the construction and development of the city and the eco-environment. Affected by urban expansion, most urban lake scenic areas have suffered from a reduction in area and ecological degradation. Protecting and restoring urban lake scenic areas has been a hot topic among the public. Given this background information, we analyzed the ecological problems and contradictions from the perspective of landscape ecology. This study evaluated the landscape pattern and ecological sensitivity in the Chaohu Lake Basin, China. The proposed method was based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographical information system (GIS). The results showed that the ecological sensitivity map was divided into four sensitivity levels consisting of level 1, level 3, level 5, and level 7, which represent 65%, 27%, 5%, and 2% of the study area. It was found that highly sensitive areas existed primarily in the highlands, where the natural conditions were poorer than in other areas and human activities have been developing rapidly. Additionally, the medium sensitive levels occurred in the low lands, probably in response to agricultural practices. Based on our results, three ecological zones were proposed, which require different protection and utilization solutions in order to restore the local ecological environment in terms of sustainable development.

The Development Path and Strategy of Tourism under the New Development Pattern of "Double Circulation"

At present, the instability of the international big cycle has increased significantly. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stressed that it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern of "double circulation", and put forward new requirements for the development of tourism. Taking the Huangshan Tourist Scenic Area in Anhui Province as an example, this paper analyzes the advantages and main problems of tourism under the new development pattern of "double circulation", and conducts quantitative analysis through mathematical analysis software such as Matlab. Finally, it puts forward reasonable countermeasures and suggestions for the development of China's tourism under the new pattern. This will provide a research basis for further institutional innovation in tourism, and also provide guidance and reference for accelerating the construction of a new "double cycle" development pattern.

Research on the Evaluation of Ecotourism Resources: Based on the AHP Model

The comprehensive evaluation of ecotourism resources in the Qinling Mountains scenic spot using the AHP method can provide a reference for the sustainable construction and development of ecotourism resources, as well as the development of other tourism areas. Based on the analytic hierarchy process, the evaluation system of Qinling Mountain Ecotourism Resources is constructed, and the construction system is used to evaluate tourism ecological resources. The results show that, among the subtarget levels, the highest score is the interaction of tourism areas in the same region and the second is the applicability of regulations. These two indicators have a high impact on the score of Qinling Mountain Ecotourism Resources. In the project layer, the source of passenger flow has the largest weight, which is 0.1717, and the distribution of resource types has a smaller weight. At the index level, participation needs to be considered for tourism participation design. The Qinling scenic area has high historical and cultural value, diverse resource types, good tourist source market conditions, and great tourism development potential. However, problems exist, such as low resource aggregation and imperfect tourism supporting facilities development. It is necessary to develop ecotourism resources on the premise of ensuring environmental quality while taking into account the in-depth excavation of the experience and ornamental values of tourism resources, establishing the tourism characteristics of scenic spots from many aspects, such as improving tourism participation.

Mud flow dynamics at gas seeps - Nirano Salse, Italy -

The Nirano Salse, known since the Roman Times, are one of the most beautiful and scenic mud volcanoes areas of Italy with thousands of visitors every year. In this work, we apply novel (for the context) hydrogeological techniques to characterize mud levels in the Salse by means of GPS-RTK positioning and continuous level logging within mud conduits. This is important to quantify the gas–liquid ratio in the conduits and evaluate the potential for dangerous abrupt mud eruptions. The results presented suggest that different mud levels in mud volcanoes clusters are due to the different gas–liquid ratio in the conduits and not necessarily exclude interconnection at depth, a hypothesis, on the other hand, that seems strengthened by mud level time series correlations. The presence of shallow aquifers at a depth of 5 to 30 m is also supported by our field data and allows us to delineate the boundaries of the shallow mud reservoir—pipes system and its overall shape. The shallow aquifers may provide a temporary storage for the ascending gas and when fluid pressure in these aquifers exceeds the tensional strength of the sedimentary rock, leakage of fluids to the surface would occur. In this case, if the gas–liquid ratio is high, mud volcanoes develop into tall gryphons and tend to have a discontinuous activity with sudden eruptions of mud after long periods of quiescence. This, together with the knowledge of shallow conduits localization has an important implication for site safety in proximity to the mud volcanoes. Our inferences based on mud level relationships to mud extrusion dynamics can be applied to lower risk in other mud volcanoes areas of the world with high geo-tourist visits, such as those of Trinidad, Azerbaijan, and Colombia.

Quantitative Analysis and Development Path of Tourism under the New Development Pattern of Double Circulation Taking Huangshan Scenic Area in Anhui as an Example

At present, the instability and uncertainty of the international big cycle are obviously enhanced. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasizes that we should speed up the construction of a new "double cycle" development pattern, which also puts forward new requirements for the development of tourism. This paper takes the Huangshan Tourist Scenic Area in Anhui Province as an example to specifically analyze its advantages and problems under the new development pattern of "double circulation", and uses the analytic hierarchy process to make a quantitative analysis of the tourism industry. The results show that the tourism industry should take action in optimizing the supply and demand structure, cultivating professional talents, developing cultural tourism integration, expanding opening and dredging, so as to accelerate the cultivation of a complete tourism domestic demand system, promote the high-quality development of tourism, provide a research basis for further institutional innovation of tourism industry, and also provide guidance and reference for accelerating the construction of a "double cycle" new development pattern.

Before Becoming a World Heritage: Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Spatial Dependency of the Soundscapes in Kulangsu Scenic Area, China

Kulangsu is a famous scenic area in China and a World Heritage Site. It is important to obtain knowledge with regard to the status of soundscape and landscape resources and their interrelationships in Kulangsu before it became a World Heritage. The objective of this study was to explore the spatial dependency of the soundscapes in Kulangsu, based on the spatiotemporal dynamics of soundscape and landscape perceptions, including perceived sound sources, soundscape quality, and landscape satisfaction degree, and the spatial landscape characteristics, including the distance to green spaces, normalized difference vegetation index, and landscape spatial patterns. The results showed that perception of soundscape and landscape were observed in significant spatiotemporal dynamics, and the dominance of biological sounds in all sampling periods and human sounds in the evening indicated that Kulangsu scenic area had a good natural environment and a developed night-time economy, respectively. The green spaces and commercial lands may contribute to both the soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness. Moreover, the soundscape quality was dependent on the sound dominant degree and landscape satisfaction degree but not on the landscape characteristics. The GWR model had better goodness of fit than the OLS model, and possible non-linear relationships were found between the soundscape pleasantness and the variables of perceived sound sources and landscape satisfaction degree. The GWR models with spatial stationarity were found to be more effective in understanding the spatial dependence of soundscapes. In particular, the data applied should ideally include a complete temporal dimension to obtain a relatively high fitting accuracy of the model. These findings can provide useful data support and references for future planning and design practices, and management strategies for the soundscape resources in scenic areas and World Heritage Sites.

The Spatio-Temporal Pattern and Spatial Effect of Installation of Lifts in Old Residential Buildings: Evidence from Hangzhou in China

In recent years, in order to improve the quality of living, China has carried out a series of urban renewal projects, such as adding elevators to old communities. Taking Hangzhou as an example, this paper studies the decision to install elevators in old residential buildings. This study used cold spots and hot spots, local autocorrelation and fishnetting analysis to show the spatial and temporal patterns of lift retrofitting in old communities. Finally, the spatial lag model is used to test whether there is a spatial spillover effect in the behavior of residents installing elevators. The research shows that: (1) Hot spots areas for retrofitting lifts are clustered in the central urban areas of Hangzhou, such as the intersection of Shangcheng District, Xiacheng District, Jianggan District, Gongshu District and Xihu District (scenic area); (2) The trend of retrofitting areas spreading from the center to the periphery; (3) In different communities, the number of elevators added in neighboring communities has a positive effect on the decision of adding elevators in other local communities. Therefore, the neighborhood effect cannot be ignored in the topic of community renovation, in which residents spontaneously participate.

Sensing Tourist Distributions and Their Sentiment Variations Using Social Media: Evidence from 5A Scenic Areas in China

The distribution and sentiment characteristics of tourists directly reflect the state of tourism development, and are an important reference for tourists to choose scenic areas. Sensing the tourist distributions and their sentiment variations can provide decision support for the development planning of scenic areas. In this study, we crawled tourist social media data to explore tourist distribution characteristics and the patterns of tourist sentiment variations. First, we used web crawlers to obtain social media data (tourist comment data) and the location data of China’s 5A scenic areas from the Ctrip tourism platform. Second, SnowNLP (Simplified Chinese Text Processing) was optimized and used to classify the sentiment of tourists’ comments and calculate the sentiment value. Finally, we mined the distribution characteristics of tourists in 5A scenic areas and the spatio-temporal variations in tourists’ sentiments. The results show that: (1) There is a negative correlation between the number of tourists to China’s 5A scenic areas and tourist sentiment: the number of tourists is highest in October and lowest in March, while tourist sentiment is highest in March and lowest in October. (2) The spatio-temporal distribution of tourists has obvious aggregation: temporally mainly in July, August and October, spatially mainly in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster, and Guanzhong Plain city cluster. (3) Tourist sentiment cold/hot spots vary significantly by city clusters: the Yangtze River Delta city cluster is always a sentiment hot spot; the northern city cluster has more sentiment cold spots; the central city cluster varies significantly during the year; the southwestern city cluster has more sentiment hot spots.

Multi‐scenario simulation of land use change based on MCR‐SD‐FLUS model: A case study of Nanchang, China

AbstractModeling land use/cover change (LUCC) is a helpful approach to simulate land use changes, analyze land use driving mechanisms, and support territorial spatial planning. However, there is no single model that comprehensively represents spatiotemporal changes, impact mechanisms, and ecological conservation of land use. This article focuses on Nanchang City and how the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, the system dynamics (SD) model, and the future land use simulation (FLUS) model can be combined and applied to simulate the trends of land utilization change in different future scenarios. This allows us to explore the environmental protection policies and constraints, as well as to assess the socioeconomic regulation mechanisms and dynamic spatial patterns of land use. The results proved that the integrated model is competent in monitoring and projecting the dynamics of LUCC. The areas suitable for ecological protection are mainly located in the southeast, northeast and Meiling Scenic Area of Nanchang. By 2030, the scale of cultivated land will decrease, while the scale of forestland, grassland, water area, and total construction land will increase. Spatially, some cultivated land will be occupied due to the expansion of urban land, while the rural settlement land will be converted into other construction land. The interconversion of ecological lands also encroaches on part of the cultivated land. This scenario simulation based on the coupled MCR‐SD‐FLUS model provides decision‐making options for land resource planning and ecological environment assessment not only in the study region but also in other similar cities.

Space–time tourist flow patterns in community-based tourism: an application of the empirical orthogonal function to Wi-Fi data

ABSTRACT Community-based tourism is a sustainable form of tourism development where tourists visit residential communities to interact with local lives and cultures for an enhanced travel experience. Identifying and tracking tourist activities in community-based tourism is particularly challenging, as tourists have shared activity spaces with residents. The paper proposes a new method to study the space–time patterns of the tourist flow using Wi-Fi data. Specifically, we have tracked Wi-Fi probe requests over six months in the Shichahai scenic area, a famous community-based tourist attraction in Beijing, China. After deriving the tourist flow from the Wi-Fi data, we have applied the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) method to the identification of the spatial aggregation pattern and the temporality of the tourist flow. A follow-up explanatory analysis examines the environmental impacts, such as weather conditions, air quality, and travel days, on the space–time patterns. The study is among the first to employ Wi-Fi data to study travel behaviours in community-based tourism. The proposed method can shed insights into a better understanding of tourist behaviours in open-space, tourism-oriented urban communities.