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 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.

ABSTRACT As tourists increasingly seek culturally immersive experiences, traditional tour guiding roles face pressure to evolve. This study examines the evolving role of tour guides amidst technological advancements and changing tourist profiles, focusing on Hong Kong. It proposes and tests a conceptual framework emphasizing professionalization, linking cultural mediation, technology integration, status and efficacy, and adaptive strategies. In-depth qualitative interviews with tour guides and stakeholders were conducted to validate the framework. The findings revealed that empathetic cultural mediators remain indispensable, offering personal stories, emotional resonance, and nuanced cultural interpretation that digital sources cannot replicate. Selective integration of technology is crucial, enhancing rather than replacing human-led storytelling. The findings further demonstrate the need to distinguish between basic professionalization and advanced professionalization. The need for continuous training, cultural depth, digital competence, and adaptive strategies to streamline job routines has also emerged as a key requirement. Cross-regional comparisons with international cases such as the UK Blue Badge system enhanced the universality of the framework. Systemic and environmental factors, such as talent retention, generational skill gaps, government support, and stakeholder collaboration, were identified as critical influences. Policy recommendations include piloting a hierarchical certification system and introducing domain-specific accreditations supported by collaboration among government, industry associations, and educational institutions. Through professionalization and collaborative networks, Hong Kong’s tour guides can continue delivering authentic, culturally rich experiences that resonate with modern Chinese tourists, ensuring the profession’s vitality in a transformed tourism landscape.

ABSTRACT Precise quantification of policy-driven factors is crucial for formulating high-quality developmental strategies. This investigation centers on policy effectiveness verification. To evaluate the efficacy of urban agglomeration policies in driving sustainable tourism development, this study establishes an integrative macromicro analytical framework, with a focus on the Chengdu‒Chongqing economic circle (CCEC) in China. Through a comparative analysis of tourism flow networks, it becomes evident that policies play pivotal roles in shaping regional tourism demand and fostering integrated tourism development within the CCEC. A thorough content analysis of these policies reveals that their primary orientations revolve around economic, sociocultural, and environmental dimensions. By using structural equation modeling on these identified dimensions, this study reveals that a higher level of government trust enhances residents’ satisfaction with policy execution and bolsters their commitment to supporting tourism development. This paper presents a conceptual framework aimed at evaluating policy-driven forces through a sustainability lens, thereby assisting governments in crafting effective policies that foster sustainable regional tourism growth.

ABSTRACT Wellness tourism is very popular because modern society imposes a range of stressors. This research is designed to examine the drivers of tourist revisit and word-of-mouth intentions for Thailand as a wellness destination, using necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Perceived price and perceived quality were identified as the most salient core conditions that induce Chinese tourists’ repeat visit and word-of-mouth. Furthermore, a combination of perceived price, perceived quality, hedonic wellbeing, and destination love contributed to Chinese tourists’ revisit and word-of-mouth intentions for Thailand. These findings not only provide academic and industrial implications relating to wellness tourists’ experiences and psychological mechanisms, but also offer practical implications for wellness tourism development in Thailand.

ABSTRACT This article reveals the nature of the ‘traditional costume experience fever’ of wearing Hanfu to travel. Study 1 revealed the complex motivations of tourists to wear Hanfu to travel by conducting semi-structured interviews with 21 hanfu tourists. One category is autonomous motivations, which include love traditional culture, ethnic community consciousness, national community consciousness, aesthetics and social interaction. The other category is controlling motivations, which include scene consistency, Hanfu marketing, destination experience marketing, secular pressure and functional constraints. Study 2 reveals the complex mechanism between hanfu tourists’ motivation and loyalty through two questionnaire studies. A necessity condition analysis showed that scene consistency was a necessary condition for loyalty among Hanfu tourists. Qualitative comparative analysis showed that the loyalty of Hanfu tourists was generated by the synergistic effect of multiple motivations. Four equivalent motivational configurations exist: traditional cultural favoritism, supremacy of the national community, consumerist aesthetics, and aesthetic tolerance. These findings are of considerable significance for the sustainable development of the emerging traditional attire experiential tourism industry.

ABSTRACT This study presents the emergence of camping as a trendy form of sustainable tourism development. Although camping tourism has clear potential, the current body of knowledge about it as an alternative form of tourism, a development strategy, or a market for cultivation remains far from sufficient. The current study utilizes self-determination theory to explore the segmentation of campers based on their characteristics. A total of 324 self-administrative questionnaires were collected from car campers or tent campers in 10 government and private campsites in Hong Kong. Three segments of campers were identified: independent thinkers, self-determinant campers, and drifters. By investigating the motivation factors, perceived importance of various camping products and camping barriers for each camper segment, valuable insights with timely suggestions are provided to foster camping tourism.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the mode choice of Pakistani tourists along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for cross-border tourism under the mediating effects of attitudes toward different modes and socio-demographic variables. The novelty of our approach is testing the hypothesis that the choice of mode is more related to socio-demographics than attitudes toward different modes. Employing a stated preference survey, multinomial logit models analyze the impact of contributing variables on mode choice. The results indicate private cars (PC) are the preferred mode among all age groups, especially females. While younger males prefer public modes, this preference seem to decrease with age. Couples with or without children, valid driving licenses, vehicle possession, and high income significantly contributed to PC as a mode choice, while the opposite was true for public modes. Positive attitudes towards safety and comfort of PC and tour operators (TO) were observed while public transport (PT) and railway (RW) fell short. Although, public modes were preferred for group and family tours, but overall people were dissatisfied. Improving PT and RW for safety and cross border services, visa on arrival, and effective marketing campaigns can bring about a shift toward public modes, and increased tourism between both countries.

ABSTRACT This study explores the influence mechanism of collective memory in promotional videos on travel intention, based on an online questionnaire survey regarding travel intention after the pandemic in Wuhan. The dimensions of collective memory about the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationships among collective memory, empathy, place attachment, and travel intention were identified using exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicate that tourism promotional videos have a significant positive impact on tourists’ travel intentions. Meanwhile, empathy and place attachment mediate the relationship between collective memory and travel intention. This study offers feasible suggestions for pandemic-related dark tourism destinations.