Sectoral fixed assets investment influences regional economic growth through tourism resilience, which has undergone significant changes in the post-pandemic world. This study develops a dual-stage machine learning framework to forecast the transmission mechanism from fixed asset investment to regional GDP, with domestic tourism income as an intermediary variable, using panel data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2012 and 2023, integrating log-linear regression, Random Forest (RF), and LightGBM (LGBM) models to compare predictive performance and capture nonlinear effects, considering structural breaks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic to examine system shocks and transitions in investment efficiency. It is revealed that real estate, transportation, wholesale and retail trade investments exhibit the highest contributions to tourism and GDP, with a shift in system responsiveness after 2020 and becoming the forecast basis for forward-looking decisions.
Cultural Routes (CR) are increasingly recognised as effective models for transnational cultural and tourism management, particularly for rural and peripheral territories. By connecting natural and cultural heritage across borders, CR contribute to local development, territorial identity, and interregional cooperation. However, despite their growing policy relevance, most CR lack systematic sustainability monitoring practices, and research addressing impact measurement along routes remains limited. This gap is largely due to the absence of tailored monitoring tools, weak institutional coordination, limited resources, and the complexity of assessing impacts across multiple spatial scales. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a governance-oriented sustainability monitoring framework that is conceptually developed through engagement with existing empirical and policy-oriented initiatives. The framework is developed in relation to the Ibero-American Programme on Cultural Routes and Itineraries promoted by the Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture. Rather than treating monitoring as a purely technical exercise, the proposed approach conceptualises participatory sustainability monitoring as a governance mechanism that fosters stakeholder collaboration, social learning, and collective reflection on development pathways. By advancing a structured yet flexible monitoring framework, the paper contributes to the development of more robust analytical tools for assessing the multi-dimensional impacts of transnational CR, supporting route managers and providing policymakers with evidence-informed insights for long-term territorial development and interregional cooperation.
This research addresses a critical gap in understanding how tourism boycotts function as diplomatic weapons in the digital age, where traditional economic sanctions theory fails to account for tourism's unique characteristics as a coercive instrument. The study analyzes a systematic cross-national analysis of tourism's weaponization. Analyzing longitudinal data from 125 countries spanning 2008-2023, we document how bilateral travel restrictions create cascading economic vulnerabilities extending beyond immediate revenue losses. Our findings reveal that boycott efficacy increases proportionally with tourism dependency and source market concentration. Critical vulnerabilities emerge when tourism's GDP contribution exceeds 15%, beyond which economic resilience deteriorates exponentially - destinations crossing this threshold experience volatility 3.5 times higher than diversified economies and achieve only 58% recovery rates compared to 89-97% for less dependent nations. Proactive market diversification reduces recovery time by 43% and the magnitude of economic contraction by 28%. This study provides empirical foundations for developing economic resilience strategies.
Overtourism has become a pressing challenge for urban destinations, generating economic, environmental, and psychological impacts on local communities. The city must be understood simultaneously as a lived residential environment and as a tourism destination shaped by housing, mobility, and urban planning structures, which explains why overtourism affects residents' well-being and positions them as central actors in destination governance. Yet the governance dimension of overtourism - and its role in shaping resident stress - remains underexplored. This study analyses how governance effectiveness, sustainability policies, and tourist behaviour interact to influence residents' stress in M & aacute;laga, an overtourism hotspot. Using data from 450 residents, we apply Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to capture both linear effects and configurational pathways. The study frames the urban destination as a planning unit, linking overtourism to spatial regulation, settlement function, and destination governance terminology.Findings show that governance failures exacerbate psychological distress, while effective sustainability policies mitigate negative effects. Stress emerges from interdependencies among governance, perceived benefits, and sustainability evaluations. The results provide actionable insights for policymakers, highlighting the need for adaptive, resident-centred governance to balance tourism growth with urban well-being.
The conversion of cultural heritage into economic vitality represents a critical challenge in heritage conservation and development. The inscription of the Grand Canal as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site has created unprecedented opportunities and complex challenges for tourism in cities along its banks. This study quantitatively assesses the economic impact of this designation using a DID approach. We analyze a panel dataset covering 86 cities in 8 provinces (and municipalities) along the canal from 2004 to 2023 to determine the effect of the inscription on the tourism economy of heritage cities. Our findings reveal that, contrary to expectations, the World Cultural Heritage status did not significantly boost tourism revenue or tourist arrivals, but instead exerted a negative influence. We identify per capita disposable income and high environmental quality as consistent positive drivers of the regional tourism economy. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis uncovers a nuanced picture: the World Cultural Heritage title acted as a 'development dividend' for economically robust cities, stimulating their tourism sector. In contrast, it imposed a significant negative shock on cities with low-to-moderate suitability for canal-based tourism. The mechanism analysis indicates that the inscription was associated with reduced fixed-asset investment in tourism and a limitation on inbound tourist flows. This study contributes empirical evidence to the intricate relationship between World Cultural Heritage status and regional economic outcomes, providing critical policy implications for heritage cities striving to balance conservation with sustainable development through differentiated strategies.
Indigenous cultural festivals in Ethiopia's Guraghe Zone attract a substantial number of visitors yet remain constrained by significant infrastructure and governance limitations that undermine their sustainability. Despite hosting approximately 750,750 tourists during the 2024/2025 festival period, the zone faces a severe accommodation deficit, resulting in an annual shortfall of about 3.5 million bed nights. This shortfall constitutes an urgent economic and infrastructural challenge rather than a purely academic concern. This study examines how major indigenous festivals-Kurifiwe, Noaqe, and Azhemene-function as integrated socio-cultural, economic, and ecological systems that contribute to sustainable tourism development. Conducted between 2022 and 2024, the research uses a mixed-methods approach, drawing on household surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation, supported by quantitative analysis and qualitative interpretation. The findings indicate that these festivals play a strong role in reinforcing cultural identity (Mean = 4.91; SD = 0.52) and cultural sustainability (Mean = 4.88; SD = 0.57), while generating substantial economic co-benefits, including increased revenues from transportation (95.1%), handicraft sales (93.0%), and beef production (91.8%), as well as approximately 3300 indirect employment opportunities linked to hospitality and service expansion. In addition, the festivals promote environmental awareness and stewardship, reflected in positive perceptions of biodiversity conservation (Mean = 4.35; SD = 0.54), alongside practices that support waste reduction, resource conservation, and reduced per-capita emissions through shared transportation systems. Overall, the study demonstrates that indigenous cultural festivals are powerful but under-supported drivers of sustainable tourism, whose benefits can be fully realized only through targeted infrastructure investment and inclusive governance reforms.
Uncertainty is an important driver of tourism demand. This study is the first to examine the impact of the monthly Global WUI (GWUI), which is considered to be a better index than the other existing indices, on the number of tourist nights, applying the Panel Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag method on the panel data of 15 developed and developing countries from January 2008 to December 2019. The study also examines the asymmetric impact of the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) and the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The empirical results exhibit that global uncertainty reduces tourist nights without any persistent asymmetric influence. However, temporarily, there is asymmetry in its impact. REER does have a persistent asymmetric impact. However, only depreciation in REER, which positively influences tourist nights, is significant in both the long and short run. IIP does not have an asymmetric impact in the short or long run. Considering these findings, policymakers from the hospitality industry and government should incorporate Global WUI in their demand forecasting models.
Conventional approaches often frame tourism unsustainability as a governance failure, especially in the absence of regulation. However, extending the predominantly urban-centric and Eurocentric overtourism literature to rural Global South contexts, this study highlights how degradation can accelerate as regulations multiply This study proposes the notion of co-production of unsustainability as an alternative framework in such a context, arguing that unsustainability emerges not necessarily from regulatory absence but from the strategic exploitation of conflicting regulations by powerful actors. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews and participant observation in the Alborz Mountain villages adjacent to the Tehran-Karaj metropolis in Tehran, three interconnected mechanisms are identified leading to co-production of unsustainability: legal inflation and selective enforcement that erodes institutional foundations; performative participation that creates a responsibility without power that disables local policy actors; and vertical misalignment that locks in governance gridlock. Analysis of exceptional cases reveals that communities can break this cycle through shadow institutionalization, demonstrating that unsustainability is contingent rather than inevitable.
Tourism increasingly operates at a metropolitan scale, yet governance structures often remain fragmented and locally bounded. This Policy and Practice article examines metropolitan tourism governance in Spain through an analysis of tourism-related instruments operating within 45 Functional Urban Areas. Findings reveal a structural absence of genuinely metropolitan tourism governance: most instruments focus on promotion, lack spatial planning capacity, and operate across mismatched territorial boundaries. A case study of the Catalan metropolitan areas illustrates how institutional overlap and weak coordination undermine metropolitan policy responses. The paper argues that metropolitan tourism governance failure constitutes a critical policy gap and outlines practical recommendations for policymakers seeking more integrated, spatially informed tourism management.
Tattoo tourism has emerged as a distinctive form of cultural and creative tourism in which ritual meanings, artistic practice, and professional customer care converge in an intimate and irreversible encounter. This study conceptualizes tattoo tourism not only as cultural consumption but also as a professionalized service experience. Google reviews from 664 tattoo studios across Thailand were analyzed using text mining, Na & iuml;ve Bayes sentiment classification, salience scores, and Importance-Performance Analysis. Tattoo-related terms were grouped into six themes: cultural and symbolic aspects; health, safety, and cleanliness; service and customer care; tattoo practitioner; studio environment; and perceived value. The findings highlight the central role of friendliness and hospitality. Spiritual and belief-related elements, such as Sak Yant, faith, and blessings, are well delivered but often evaluated through the lens of service care and risk management. The study offers an attribute-based perspective on tattoo tourism and practical implications for destination managers and tattoo practitioners.
This research note reports on a panel discussion held at the 2025 ATLAS Conference on 25 years of creative tourism development. Since creative tourism was first defined in 2000, the concept has gone through an evolution from a narrow base of craft workshops towards a broader articulation of creativity and tourism. Three panellists discuss the evolution of creative tourism in the past quarter-century, with the aim of highlighting the origins of the concept and its contribution to different areas of tourism. Themes covered include the development of co-creation in tourism and the relationship between creative tourism, wellbeing and eudaimonia. The note concludes with a consideration of the policy implications of the development of creative tourism.
