Tourist Cities In China Research Articles

New Changes in Chinese Urban Tourism Pattern under the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic: Based on Internet Attention

Internet attention, as a reflection of the actual focus of the public, not only responds to potential tourism demand but also represents the overall perception and preference characteristics of tourists for a tourist destination. The study selected eight representative tourist cities in China as research objects. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism patterns of Chinese cities was analysed using various analytical methods, including the seasonal characteristic index, the entropy value method, the coefficient of variation, and the tourism background trend line model. The study revealed the following conclusions: (1) following the conclusion of the epidemic, potential tourism demand demonstrated a notable recovery in comparison to the epidemic period, yet remained below the level observed in the same period before the epidemic. (2) The seasonal variations in internet attention after the end of the epidemic demonstrated an increased degree of differentiation, with the tourism market tending to be more prosperous during the high season and less so during the low season. (3) The epidemic had a relatively minor impact on the internet attention of famous tourist attractions and natural ecological attractions. In contrast, it had a more significant influence on historical and cultural sites and modern amusement spots. The findings of this study offer insights that can inform the recovery and sustainable development of tourist cities in the post-pandemic era.

Studying tourism development and its impact on carbon emissions

Analyzing the influence of tourism on carbon emission has significant implications for promoting the sustainable development of tourism. Based on the panel data of 31 tourist cities in China from 2005 to 2022, this study utilizes a structural equation model to explore the carbon reduction effect of tourism development and its influencing mechanism. The results show that: (1) The overall carbon emission efficiency of tourism cities first decreased and then increased, rised to a peak of 0.923 in 2022. (2) Tourism development has a significant positive impact on carbon emission efficiency, and there are three influence paths: tourism → environmental regulation → carbon emission efficiency, tourism → environmental regulation → industrial structure → carbon emission efficiency, and tourism → industrial structure → carbon emission efficiency. (3) The influence of tourism development on carbon emission efficiency mainly depends on the direct effect, and the development of tourism also indirectly affect the industrial structure. Environmental regulation also mainly depends on the direct effect on carbon emission efficiency. (4) Foreign direct investment lead to the reduction of carbon emission efficiency in both direct and indirect aspects.

Correlation Analysis of Urban Road Network Structure and Spatial Distribution of Tourism Service Facilities at Multi-Scales Based on Tourists’ Travel Preferences

Harbin, as a popular tourist city in China, and the host of the 2025 Asian Winter Games, boasts rich tourism resources and significant potential for further development. The structure of the urban road network is a crucial factor influencing the spatial distribution of tourism service facilities. However, the current research on the correlation between the two, analyzed at multiple scales based on tourists’ travel preferences, is not sufficient. First, utilizing the questionnaire survey method to analyze tourists’ travel preferences and combining it with the theory of 15-min life circle, we determine the study scales at 500 m, 1000 m, 3000 m, and 5000 m. Secondly, the integration value and choice value of roads in the main urban area of Harbin are analyzed based on the theory of spatial syntax. The spatial distribution characteristics of tourism service facilities are then revealed through kernel density analysis. Finally, the correlation between the road network structure and the distribution of various types of tourism service facilities in Harbin at different scales is determined through buffer analysis and Pearson bivariate correlation analysis. The results show that: (1) Integration value plays a significant positive role in promoting the clustering of tourism service facilities, especially tending to cluster in areas with high integration value formed at a scale of 500 m; (2) At the scale of 3000 m, the distribution of tourism service facilities exhibits a significant correlation with the choice value; (3) The correlation between dining, shopping, and entertainment facilities and the integration value decreases with the increase in scale, whereas the spatial distribution of accommodation and attraction facilities does not exhibit a regular pattern with changes in integration value. In addition, this paper also puts forward targeted suggestions for optimizing the urban road network structure, reasonably locating tourism service facilities, and implementing balanced regional development. The contribution of this study is that it will help improve tourists’ travel experience in the city and provide scientific support for promoting the overall sustainable development of tourism in Harbin.

Effects of China's pilot low-carbon city policy on carbon emission reduction in the hotel industry: A quasi-natural experiment in tourism cities

A low-carbon pilot city bases its economy on energy efficiency, demonstrating an environmentally friendly development model and establishing a sustainable energy ecosystem. Establishing low-carbon pilot cities exerts both actual and exemplary effects in decreasing its CO2 emissions. However, research in the field of low-carbon measures has frequently bypassed their particular effects on sectors with high emissions, such as the hospitality industry. This study seeks to fill this void by assessing the influence of low-carbon city pilot policies (LCCP) on the hotel sector's carbon footprint. The analysis uses a PSM-DID model to review emission data across 49 prominent tourist cities in China over the period 2010–2020. It contrasts emission patterns between pilot and non-pilot cities. Findings reveal that LCCP markedly cuts CO2 output in hotels. This cutback stems from sectoral change, the growth of higher-rated hotels, and enhanced hotel occupancy rate. The policy's effects are especially strong in affluent regions and international tourist cities. These results point to LCCP's crucial contribution to sustainable hotel practices. The study emphasizes the necessity for precise environmental regulations in energy-intensive industries to meet wider sustainability objectives.

Shanghai Tourism Carbon Footprint Measurement Based on Final Consumption and Suggestions for Improvement of Urban Tourism Facilities

As a major tourist city in China, Shanghai's tourism industry generates a great deal of carbon emissions. However, China is now actively practicing measures to reduce carbon emissions in order to protect the environment. Therefore, it is particularly important to measure Shanghai tourism carbon footprint. The results of this study can help characterize the carbon emission of Shanghai's tourist industry, so that the government can better improve Shanghai's tourism - based on its characteristics and reduce the carbon emissions in a more effective manner, which can better respond to the national and global low-carbon trend. This research utilizes the "from bottom to up" approach, collects data from Shanghai's tourism final consumption, measures the sub-industrys carbon footprint using the carbon emission coefficients, and then performs a superposition calculation to determine the characteristics of Shanghai's overall tourism and sub-industry carbon footprint, and the composition of carbon footprint in transportation. It shows following problems: the national environmental protection awareness has not yet been formed, and the tourism's related technologies and service facilities have not been able to guide tourists to reduce carbon emissions. In view of the characteristics and problems, this paper puts forward three suggestions, including the innovation of tourism-related technologies, the transformation of tourism service facilities and the enhancement of national low-carbon awareness.

How air pollution affects tourism revenue: evidence from China

ABSTRACT It is acknowledged that air pollution has a detrimental impact on tourism revenue, but the mechanisms behind this impact remain unknown. Previous studies have merely assumed that air pollution affects tourism revenue through the number of tourists. Based on the inbound tourism data of 47 major tourist cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this study reveals that in addition to lowering the number of tourists, air pollution also reduces tourist expenditure per capita by shortening their length of stay, ultimately leading to a decrease in tourism revenue. The finding is robust even when the endogeneity of air pollution is considered. Moreover, the results also show that the impact of air pollution on tourism revenue, tourist flow, tourist expenditure per capita, and length of stay is nonlinear. The findings of this paper contribute to an accurate assessment of the economic consequences of air pollution on tourism.

Research on the Current Situation and Standardization of Japanese Translation in Langzhong Ancient City Scenic Area

Langzhong Ancient City is one of the four ancient cities in China, with multiple honors such as being a national historical and cultural city and an excellent tourist city in China. At the same time, the Langzhong Municipal Government also closely adheres to the goal of "high-quality construction of world ancient city tourism destinations" and unwaveringly adheres to the development strategy of "strengthening the city through industry and revitalizing the city through culture and tourism". However, there are many problems in the Japanese translation and promotion of the Langzhong Ancient City scenic area, which will greatly restrict the healthy development of the tourism industry in Langzhong City. Therefore, this article focuses on studying the current situation of Japanese translation in the scenic area of Langzhong Ancient City, including both the Japanese translation gaps in the scenic area and the mistranslation and omission in the scenic area. Based on this, targeted normative measures are proposed for the Japanese translation gaps and Chinese literal translation in the scenic area of Langzhong Ancient City.

Tourist Attraction Appraisal and Local Environment Improvement: Some Evidence from China

This paper analyzes the relationship between tourist attraction appraisal and local environment improvement. Using a panel data set of 150 top tourist cities in China from 2004 to 2019, the paper adopts a two-way fixed effects model to test the impact of 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal on local environment improvement. The main conclusions are given as follows: First, 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal can motivate local governments to improve the local environment. Second, the environmental improvement effect of 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal is influenced by a city’s tourism resource dependence. In cities with higher tourism resource dependence, 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal is more conducive to improving the local environment. Third, 5A-level tourist attraction appraisal has caused stronger environmental improvement effects for natural tourist attractions than for cultural tourist attractions. These results highlight that urban planners should pay attention to the mechanism of tourist attraction appraisal to improve the urban environment, while promoting economic development.

Exploring the Discrepancy between Projected and Perceived Destination Images: A Cross-Cultural and Sustainable Analysis Using LDA Modeling

The projected image, created by destination marketing organizations, and the perceived image, formed by tourists’ perceptions, are crucial factors in destination selection. In this paper, machine learning models are used to construct projected image dimensions and perceptual dimensions for Chinese and English to analyze the similarities and differences between projected and perceptual images and their Chinese sustainability and cultural differences issues. We take Xiamen, a seaside tourist city in China, as an example, and analyze it by collecting 110,098 official promotional texts (both in Chinese and English) and tourist online review feedback as data sources using a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model of natural language processing. The findings show that (1) the official projected image focuses on the overall image of the destination, while the tourists’ perceived image focuses on the specific image. (2) The official projected image covers the whole area of tourism, while the tourists’ perceived image focuses on Xiamen’s well-known attractions. The results of the above two points are the same for both the Chinese and English Topic models. (3) The official projected image focuses on three dimensions of destination: sustainability-economic, socio-cultural and environmental, while the tourist perception is more in the socio-cultural and environmental dimensions. (4) Both the projected and perceived images in Chinese and English differ in cross-cultural situations. The perceived images of Chinese and British tourists are influenced by their respective cultural backgrounds. Chinese tourists’ perceptions reflect cultural values associated with collectivism, long-term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance. On the other hand, British tourists’ perceptions align with cultural values of individualism, short-term orientation, and lower uncertainty avoidance. These differences can be explained using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory. The research in this paper can provide a reference for the promotion of tourism cities, and tourism destination organizations should not only focus on sustainable promotion, but also attract domestic and foreign tourists through differentiated promotion.

A Deep Transfer Learning Toponym Extraction and Geospatial Clustering Framework for Investigating Scenic Spots as Cognitive Regions

In recent years, the Chinese tourism industry has developed rapidly, leading to significant changes in the relationship between people and space patterns in scenic regions. To attract more tourists, the surrounding environment of a scenic region is usually well developed, attracting a large number of human activities, which creates a cognitive range for the scenic region. From the perspective of tourism, tourists’ perceptions of the region in which tourist attractions are located in a city usually differ from the objective region of the scenic spots. Among them, social media serves as an important medium for tourists to share information about scenic spots and for potential tourists to learn scenic spot information, and it interacts to influence people’s perceptions of the destination image. Extracting the names of tourist attractions from social media data and exploring their spatial distribution patterns is the basis for research on the cognitive region of tourist attractions. This study takes Hangzhou, a well-known tourist city in China, as a case study to explore the human cognitive region of its popular scenic spots. First, we propose a Chinese tourist attraction name extraction model based on RoBERTa-BiLSTM-CRF to extract the names of tourist attractions from social media data. Then, we use a multi-distance spatial clustering method called Ripley’s K to filter the extracted tourist attraction names. Finally, we combine road network data and polygons generated using the chi-shape algorithm to construct the vague cognitive regions of each scenic spot. The results show that the classification indicators of our proposed tourist attraction name extraction model are significantly better than those of previous toponym extraction models and algorithms (precision = 0.7371, recall = 0.6926, F1 = 0.7141), and the extracted vague cognitive regions of tourist attractions also generally conform to people’s habitual cognition.

Observations on the development of townships around mega-tourist attraction caused by land use change—the case of Zhangjiajie, China

ABSTRACT The dynamic change in land use can reflect the change in the ecological environment and social economy. Zhangjiajie is the famous mountain tourist city in China having a dual core central structure constituting the urban central area and Wulingyuan Scenic Area (referred to as DCC). This study is based on the land use data of Zhangjiajie in 2000, 2010, and 2020. It analyzed the dynamic change in the pattern of land use, its cause and effects using the method of human-computer interaction for remote sensing image interpretation. The study revealed: (1) the growth of construction land is the maximum, while cultivated land and grassland are mostly transformed into construction and forest land. (2) The reasons why Zhangjiajie with limited cultivated, and idle industrial land was mainly transformed into tourism construction land, especially the townships around DCC. (3) The development of townships around DCC should build industrial belts for coordinated development. This study attempts to analyze the development dilemma and outlet of Zhangjiajie’s DCC on its surrounding 12 townships using the results of land use change aiming to realize the integrated development of DCC and township area, to provide practical experience for green development of township industry around mega-tourist attraction.

Research on the sustainable development of tourism coupled with economic and environment data--a case study of Hangzhou.

The scale of tourism has continued to expand in recent years, and many associated activities cause damage to the natural environment. The tourism, economy and natural environment constitute a system: destruction of the natural environment reduces the value of tourism and a lack of tourism affects the development of the economy. To explore the relationship between the tourism, economy and natural environment, and to explore possibilities for sustainable development, this paper takes Hangzhou, a tourist city in China, as a research object. An analysis of time series data is carried out. First, the tourism, economy and natural environment subsystems are constructed by extracting time series data acquired between 2010 and 2020. Second, a tourism evaluation model with coupled economic and natural environment data is constructed and the coupling degree and coupling coordination level in Hangzhou are evaluated. Third, the time series of each subsystem and the coupling coordination level of the whole system are analyzed. Finally, an optimization strategy is proposed for the coupled coordinated development of the tourism, economy and natural environment in Hangzhou. A key result is that the tertiary industry represented by tourism has become the main source of local income. Hangzhou's tourism coupling coordination level has changed from slight disorder in 2010 to good in 2020. It is also found that the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major factor restricting the development of tourism. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Hangzhou's tourism industry and economy were synchronized. After the outbreak of COVID-19, both the number of tourists and tourism revenue in Hangzhou fell by nearly 15%.

Factors influencing tourists' shared bicycle loyalty in Hangzhou, China.

Focusing on Hangzhou, a famous tourist city in China, in this study, four regression models were constructed through four items of tourist loyalty to investigate the influence of tourist perceptions and characteristics on male and female tourist loyalty to shared bicycles. A questionnaire survey and ordered logistic regression model techniques were used. Survey data from 467 tourists indicated that there were significant differences between male and female tourists. For male tourists, their willingness to reuse shared bicycles (Models 1 and 2) was positively correlated with ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and management provision; however, their willingness to recommend shared bicycles (Models 3 and 4) was only affected by environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and management provision. Among female tourists, willingness to reuse shared bicycles (Models 1 and 2) was affected by ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, and rule adherence, while their willingness to recommend shared bicycles (Models 3 and 4) was affected by ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and managerial provision. In addition, female tourists' socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics had a significant impact on their loyalty, among which length of stay in Hangzhou and education were significant in the four regression models, and number of visits to Hangzhou had a positive impact on female tourists' willingness to reuse (Models 1 and 2). In addition, female tourists who used Hellobike had higher willingness to reuse and recommend than those who used Mobike. For male tourists, only length of stay in Hangzhou had a significant impact on their reuse intention (Model 2). The current study extends the theory of attribution to explore the factors which may affect tourist's loyalty to bicycle-sharing from the perspectives of tourists' perceptions. It will provide further support to decision makers in the development of new shared-bicycle systems at Chinese tourist destinations, with the aim of strengthening tourist loyalty to shared-bicycle programs.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Tourism Eco-Efficiency in Major Tourist Cities in China

Tourism development consumes ecological resources to varying extents while bringing economic benefits; tourism eco-efficiency (TEE) assessment has thus become an area of major focus in destination sustainability research. This paper intends to examine the spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factors of eco-efficiency changes in 36 tourist cities on the Chinese mainland from 2010 to 2019, using a super-slacks-based measure (SBM) model, the data envelopment analysis (DEA)–Malmquist index, spatial correlation, and regression analysis. In contrast to the previous work, this work explores TEE among major tourist cities in China by considering the undesirable outputs of carbon emissions and sewage. The results show that (1) the TEE of most cities during the study period was low but increasing; there were significant spatial differences among different cities, and the eco-efficiency of the same city fluctuated over time. (2) The TEE was globally uncorrelated, but low-eco-efficiency areas were adjacent to each other and formed agglomerates, enhancing the negative spillover effect. (3) Despite fluctuations, the Malmquist indices exhibited positive trends, which resulted from the technical progress index rather than the technical efficiency index. (4) Socioeconomic development significantly promoted TEE. This research reveals the evolutionary law of TEE on the urban scale and explores the impact of social and economic development on TEE, which can provide a reference for policymaking and enrich research on destination sustainability.

Does CSR influence sustained competitive advantage and behavioral outcomes? An empirical study in the hospitality sector

ABSTRACT This research examines the underlying mechanism through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences customer loyalty in the hospitality sector. A survey conducted in three popular tourist cities in China reveals that CSR positively impacts customer loyalty through institutional-level constructs, including corporate image and sustained competitive advantage, and individual-level constructs, including customer trust and customer satisfaction. Moreover, the core capabilities of organizations moderate the effect of CSR on corporate image and sustained competitive advantage. Corporate image sustained advantage, and customer satisfaction also mediates the relationship between CSR and customer loyalty. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Vulnerability of Tourist Cities’ Economic Systems Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: System Characteristics and Formation Mechanisms—A Case Study of 46 Major Tourist Cities in China

Research on the vulnerability of tourist cities’ economic systems during COVID-19 can offer insightful implications for tourism recovery and resilience. We built a vulnerability index of tourist cities’ economic systems based on sensitivity and responsiveness amid COVID-19. Taking 46 major tourist cities in China as a case, the vulnerability indices and main vulnerability-induced factors were analyzed using a comprehensive assessment model and a factor identification model. The results revealed several trends. First, after the pandemic emerged, the vulnerability of the economic systems of major tourist cities remained mostly moderate. Vulnerability could be further divided into four types across four city characteristics and four system characteristics. Second, sensitivity had a more pronounced effect on system vulnerability; crisis pressure and inbound tourism reliance exerted key influences on the vulnerability of tourist cities’ economic systems. Cities with high and relatively high vulnerability were subject to tourism reliance sensitivity factors and urban guarantee responsiveness factors. Third, the pandemic’s influence on tourist cities’ economic system vulnerability was mainly reflected in exogenous environmental stress vulnerability (i.e., due to external environmental stress), but was essentially endogenous structural imbalance vulnerability (i.e., due to imbalanced internal structures). Fourth, system vulnerability can be alleviated by reducing system sensitivity, improving system responsiveness, and enhancing the system’s engineering resilience and ecological resilience. This study not only offers an overview of the vulnerability characteristics of tourist cities’ economic systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but also highlights the formation mechanisms of vulnerability.

Research on Regional Tourism Cooperation in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin City Economic Circle

Chongqing and Chengdu are excellent tourist cities in China with abundant tourism resources. Since geographical proximity and cultural history, Chengdu and Chongqing's regional tourism development has substantial cooperation advantages and opportunities. This paper introduces the current situation and trend of tourism development in Chengdu and Chongqing, discusses the advantages of cooperation between these two cities, and analyzes the prospects and fields of regional tourism cooperation.

Study on the Development of Marine Cultural Tourism of Dalian

Dalian is one of the famous coastal tourist cities in China, with a unique geographical location. This paper studies the development of marine cultural tourism in Dalian by means of literature analysis and data analysis. This paper holds that the existing problems of Dalian marine cultural tourism are as follows: Covid-19 impact; Serious pollution of marine resources; Weak brand competitiveness of marine cities; and missing talent. Combined with analysis and the author’s personal knowledge base, this paper believes that paying attention to marine ecological environment protection, excavating cultural resources and personnel training are helpful to break the barriers of Dalian marine cultural tourism, so as to promote the development of Dalian marine cultural tourism.

Can Tourism Development Make Cities More Livable? Investigating 40 Cities in China.

The field of rapid urbanization has recently paid more attention to the relationship between tourism development and liveable city construction. Previous studies have mainly focused on the experiences of tourists in tourist cities and seldom paid attention to the perceptions of local residents. Based on survey data of nearly 10,000 permanent residents in 40 key tourist cities in China, this study uses a multilevel model to quantitatively analyse the natural environment characteristics, sociocultural environment characteristics and comprehensive attraction of tourism in different tourist cities to explore their impact on urban liveability satisfaction. Results show that the developed tourist cities do not exactly correspond to the cities with a high liveability evaluation. The objective evaluation of both the natural environment and the sociocultural environment has an important influence on the liveability of cities, but the influence of the natural environment is stronger than that of the sociocultural environment. An intermediary effect exists in the subjective evaluation of the natural environment and environments for liveability perception. Simultaneously, residents’ liveability satisfaction varies according to their age, education level, annual household income and other social and economic conditions. These findings provide insights for developing countries to further improve residents’ living quality and urban construction under the condition of the rapid development of tourism.

Evaluation of the Practical Effects of Environmental Measures in the Conservation of Architectural Heritage in Yan'an Based on Recurrent Neural Networks.

Yan'an is one of the “two holy places” of the Chinese nation and the Chinese revolution and is one of the first cities of historical and cultural significance and an outstanding tourist city in China, as announced by the state council. The evaluation of the effectiveness of environmental conservation is one of the very important elements of the conservation of Yan'an's architectural heritage. However, the existing evaluation methods cannot provide new solutions for decision-making, the meaning of the comprehensive evaluation function is unclear, the naming clarity is low, there is less quantitative data and more qualitative components, and the results are not easily convincing. This paper proposes a method for evaluating the practical effects of environmental class measures in the conservation of Yan'an's architectural heritage based on recurrent neural networks. The recurrent neural network makes full use of the memory function in the network, considers the causal relationship of the actual effect, and efficiently evaluates the existing measures. In comparison with factor analysis and hierarchical analysis, this paper has greater applicability in evaluating the practical effects of environmental measures in the conservation of Yan'an's architectural heritage and is basically consistent with the results of the theoretical analysis. It provides a scientific basis for the construction and implementation of environmental measures for the architectural heritage of Yan'an.