Agritourism research spans visitor experience, consumer behavior, rural development, sustainability, and farm-system viability, but these strands remain only partially connected. This study presents a focused scoping evidence map, reported with PRISMA-ScR, of Scopus-indexed open-access records that explicitly connect agritourism/agrotourism with a consumer-oriented perspective. The search was conducted on 18 January 2026 without a publication-year restriction; the 43 included studies cover 2006–2025. The analytical framework combines bibliometric and semantic mapping with diagnostic tests of interpretive robustness. Topic solutions from k = 2 to k = 8 showed that no single number dominated all criteria: k = 2 had the strongest coherence and seed stability, whereas k = 4 reduced perplexity by 7.7% and provided greater substantive resolution. Excluding the dominant open-access publisher produced matched-topic cosine similarities of 0.851–0.919, and excluding two peripheral records produced similarities of 0.980–0.992. Four exploratory areas—agritourism and rural development, green behavior and trust, visitor experience, and food and farm systems—are interpreted as overlapping orientations rather than fixed domains. A dual-method sentiment check yielded only moderate score correspondence (r = 0.392) and 51.2% categorical agreement, so polarity is treated solely as an exploratory framing diagnostic. The evidence map identifies a persistent integration gap between consumer models and the productive, logistical, seasonal, and resilience conditions that determine whether agritourism promises can be delivered. Findings are conditioned by the focused query, scopus-only coverage, English-language and open-access restrictions, and analysis of titles and abstracts.
BackgroundWellness tourism has emerged as a rapidly growing segment of the global tourism industry, yet its development in Central Asian heritage regions remains constrained by service fragmentation, limited digital infrastructure, and the absence of standardized assessment frameworks. The Bukhara region of Uzbekistan, endowed with thermal springs, therapeutic hot sands, and mineral-rich mud deposits, exemplifies this tension between exceptional wellness potential and underdeveloped sector coordination.MethodsWe developed the EWI framework through a three-round Delphi process (N = 15 experts), yielding nine weighted criteria operationalized via 25 measurable indicators. The framework was applied to 12 wellness-oriented facilities through on-site field surveys conducted in 2023–2024. Panel data for the 2021–2024 period were analyzed using weighted least squares regression, and facility segmentation was performed using k-means clustering in IBM SPSS Statistics v26.ResultsThe assessment revealed three distinct facility clusters: International/Large Wellness Hotels, excelling in infrastructure and accessibility; Traditional Therapeutic Centers, demonstrating exceptional indigenous healing expertise and effective use of natural resources; and Hybrid Emerging Facilities, showing balanced but moderate performance. Econometric analysis identified customer base expansion and qualified staffing as the strongest positive determinants of revenue.ConclusionsThe findings support a cluster-specific approach to developing wellness tourism in heritage regions. We propose the Wellness Bukhara Voucher System—a digitally integrated platform with a three-phase implementation roadmap.
IntroductionGrowing environmental sustainability concerns have increased the need for hotels to adopt responsible management practices that improve green performance. This study uses Social Exchange theory to examine how green human resource management affects green performance in the hospitality industry, specifically through sustainable service innovation and proactive green behavior toward technology use.MethodsData were collected from 415 Malaysian hotel employees via purposive and convenience sampling and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling in SmartPLS version 4.1.1.8.ResultsThe findings show that green human resource management significantly improves green performance, sustainable service innovation, and proactive green behavior to technology use. Furthermore, sustainable service innovation and proactive green behavior to technology use both significantly influence green performance and partially mediate the relationship between green human resource management and green performance. The study confirms the serial mediating roles of sustainable service innovation and proactive green behavior toward technology use in this relationship.DiscussionThe study highlights the importance of integrating green HR practices, sustainability-oriented innovation, and proactive use of green technology to strengthen environmental sustainability in hotels.
Processes of geoheritage recognition and tourism development often evolve along distinct yet interacting trajectories. Drawing on comparative case studies in the Swiss Alps, the Moroccan Atlas and southern Iceland, this contribution examines how “heritage trajectories” and “resource trajectories” shape the territorialisation of geomorphological heritage. The analysis highlights that these trajectories may unfold in different sequences—tourism preceding heritage recognition in the Swiss Alps, heritage designation preceding tourism in Vatnajökull National Park and Fjallabak Nature Reserve, and either independent (M'Goun UNESCO Global Geopark) or strongly interdependent (Katla UNESCO Global Geopark) dynamics elsewhere. Across all cases, however, heritage-making and tourism development mutually influence one another, particularly in UNESCO-labeled territories where geomorphological features constitute key territorial resources. The study shows that the territorial implications of geoheritage recognition depend on local actors, institutional resource regimes and broader contextual factors, including volcanic eruptions or economic crises. The definition of protected areas often reflects political compromises rather than optimal geoconservation outcomes, as illustrated by the delayed integration of high-value proglacial margins into Vatnajökull National Park. Understanding when, how and by whom geoheritage has been incorporated—or excluded—from protected areas is essential for anticipating future management challenges. This perspective invites a more systematic examination of heritage awareness, value hierarchies, and institutional constraints. It also raises critical questions about whether UNESCO labels strengthen geoheritage protection or, conversely, intensify tourism pressures and degradation risks in sensitive geomorphological environments.
Lake Naivasha, located in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, has experienced substantial environmental changes over the past decade that have resulted in a sustained increase in water levels. Consequently, Crescent Island, a privately managed wildlife sanctuary, has become isolated from the mainland. Historically, the island would fluctuate seasonally between an island and peninsula. As water levels have risen, the causeway has remained covered, restricting terrestrial connectivity which has limited wildlife movement as well as predator access. This has resulted in a growing ecological strain through competition for forage, habitat degradation, and potential disease risks. This assessment explores how climate driven hydrological changes, management decisions, and adaptive ecotourism practices interact to impact long-term ecosystem sustainability to Crescent Island in summer 2025, a three-day field assessment was conducted through a One Health lens. Methods included direct observation, interviews with stakeholders and guides, necropsy examination of a deceased Thomson's gazelle, and informal population records maintained by guides. Field observations of widespread vegetation depletion, evidence of chronic overgrazing, proliferation of invasive plant species, and necropsy findings consistent with infectious disease suggest that Crescent Island has likely exceeded its ecological carrying capacity. Guide-maintained, observational records indicate a decline in Thomson's gazelle sightings over the past several years, with daily counts reported to be lower in 2025 than in previous seasons. Increased tourist foot traffic was observed, contributing to habitat disturbance and potential biosecurity risk. Since then, water levels in Lake Naivasha have risen still further, exacerbating further the risks to Crescent Island's ecosystem. This study presents Crescent Island as an example of how hydrological change can quickly destabilize small, isolated wildlife systems. By proposing practical, scalable management recommendations, including improved wildlife census and surveillance, rotational grazing, reforestation, strengthened biosecurity, and implementing ecotourism controls, we hope to mitigate the strain and support the long-term sustainability of the evolving landscape.
Sentani Lake in Papua Province is a unique ecological and socio-cultural landscape facing increasing pressures from land-use change, sedimentation, and unplanned tourism. This study develops a sustainable tourism framework by integrating spatial analysis, green infrastructure, and community-based approaches. A mixed-methods design combined GIS-based analysis with SWOT and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), using Sentinel-2 imagery, digital elevation models, environmental datasets, field surveys, and stakeholder interviews across a 1,355.9 km2 study area. The GIS results reveal contrasting spatial conditions, ranging from high-value conservation and cultural tourism zones to degraded and vulnerable areas requiring ecological restoration. The Internal–External matrix produced an IFE score of 3.49 and an EFE score of 2.75, placing Sentani Lake in Quadrant II, or the “Hold and Maintain” position. This indicates strong internal ecological and socio-cultural potential but moderate external capacity due to institutional, environmental, and infrastructure constraints. AHP prioritization identified renewable energy investment as the highest-ranked strategy (S–T-1 = 0.0867), followed by green building adoption (S–O-1 = 0.0832) and digital infrastructure strengthening through partnerships (W–O-4 = 0.0818). These findings indicate that sustainable tourism development in Sentani Lake should prioritize ecological resilience, institutional strengthening, low-impact infrastructure, and indigenous community collaboration. Integrating spatial planning, environmental restoration, digital monitoring, and local cultural governance is essential for building resilient and inclusive lake-based tourism development.
Tourists engage in mountain adventure activities (such as hiking, trekking, and climbing) through sensory immersion. Although there is a great deal of research in this area, there is still a lack of a solid conceptual synthesis of existing studies and an explanation of how sensory experiences contribute to tourists' eudaimonic well-being. Without a doubt, adventure tourism in the mountains can promote eudaimonic well-being by engaging tourists in meaningful physical and mental experiences. Hence, the main objective of this study is to explain why tourists engage in mountain adventure activities such as hiking, trekking, or climbing, and how these experiences contribute to eudaimonic well-being precisely through sensory immersion. The result of this work is a conceptual framework that integrates sensory experiences, mountain tourism, and eudaimonic well-being. Through a systematic literature review of 111 articles using the PRISMA standard, the analysis identified two categories of mountain adventure tourism—soft and hard—that reflect the relationship with sensory immersion. Research shows that participation in mountain activities, such as hiking, contributes to key dimensions of eudaimonic well-being, including self-acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relationships, meaning in life, and personal growth. Sensory immersion in the mountain environment—through visual landscapes, natural sounds, physical exertion, and weather conditions—acts as a catalyst, transforming outdoor activities into experiences conducive to self-actualization and psychological flourishing. The study partly explains (but also raises new challenges) how multisensory engagement in a mountain environment fosters significant psychological effects and supports human development.
Silk Road legacy destinations are increasingly under pressure to diversify their product mix, but rarely do they combine visitor demand, local attitudes and supply-side capabilities in a single empirical study. This research fills that gap using mixed methodologies. The study triangulated three streams of evidence: a cross-sectional tourist survey (n = 103), a host-community survey (n = 69), and an expert-based multi-criteria preparedness assessment of 17 recreational and wellness facilities, complemented by a documented inventory of regional resources. Findings show that Bukhara is almost solely associated with a historical and cultural product, while health and event-based products are peripheral. Nonetheless, visitors showed substantial latent interest in heritage-related experiential items–a Silk and Spices festival, gastronomic events, historical re-enactment, and traditional music. Residents supported development, citing job and commercial benefits. Structural impediments persist: only one assessed facility reached the highest readiness category and awareness of existing events pre-arrival was minimal, reinforcing that demand and community goodwill currently outstrip institutional and physical readiness. Scientifically, this research adds to the existing knowledge base in sustainable tourism by being the first to simultaneously and empirically assess demand pull, social license and supply readiness for product diversification in a Central Asian Silk Road destination, resulting in a diagnostic framework that can be replicated in similar heritage settings.
By combining cognitive and affective determinants into a single framework, this study investigated the psychological processes behind environmentally conscious travel behavior. Although environmental concern has historically been highlighted in tourism research as a significant predictor of sustainable behavior, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by showing that awareness is insufficient to promote behavioral change. Drawing on the norm activation model and affect-based perspectives, we propose that affective attachment to nature—particularly love for nature—serves as a critical pathway through which environmental concern is translated into action, with flight shame acting as an emotional trigger. Valid survey data from 500 Vande Bharat electric train travelers in India were subjected to exploratory, confirmatory factor analysis to elucidate the structural relationships among the constructs; the hypotheses were tested, and structural equation modeling was performed. While environmental concern directly influences environmentally responsible travel behavior, its effect is significantly amplified through the mediating role of love for nature, highlighting the dominant role of affective attachment in converting cognitive awareness into action. Furthermore, love for nature fully mediates the relationship between environmental concern and flight shame, while it partially mediates the relationship between environmental concern and environmentally responsible travel behavior. In contrast, respect for nature has limited explanatory power. The present study advances the knowledge on sustainable mobility by encompassing both cognitive and affective determinants in a comprehensive model of pro-environmental travel behavior. The results reveal a role for affective attachment in mediating concern for the environment and pro-environmental travel behavior.
IntroductionAs sustainable development evolves, responsible conduct in tourism has emerged as a significant area of study. Tourism activities take place in public areas governed by social conventions. Thus, citizen responsible tourism behavior is influenced by contextual circumstances and a consciousness of responsibility. Nevertheless, current research predominantly employs a unilateral perspective and lacks comprehensive analysis, inadequately addressing the significance of responsibility cognition. This study utilizes the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) theory to address this gap. It incorporates place attachment, environmental attitude, destination social responsibility, and Sustainability Intelligence as antecedent factors to analyze their impact on citizen responsible tourism behavior. It further examines the mediation function of perceived environmental responsibility in this process.MethodsA questionnaire survey was administered to 571 visitors to Beijing, and structural equation modeling was used for the empirical analysis.ResultsThe findings demonstrate that all suggested antecedent factors substantially affect citizen responsible tourism behavior, with perceived environmental responsibility serving as a crucial mediating variable between these factors and that behavior.DiscussionThis study expands the paradigm of citizen responsible tourism behavior and provides additional empirical evidence for the application of relevant ideas in tourism contexts. The findings effectively promote travelers' sense of responsibility and foster responsible behavior, thereby aiding the sustainable development of tourism destinations.
Rural tourism plays an important role in promoting the sustainable use of local resources and has been widely developed in Indonesia through the tourism village program. This study explores how indigenous knowledge is integrated into resource management strategies in tourism villages in Jeneponto Regency, offering new insights into the relatively underrepresented Turatea cultural and coastal context. Data were collected using multiple qualitative methods and analyzed thematically with the support of NVivo 12 Plus. The findings highlight the importance of traditional leadership and community participation in maintaining local control over marine and cultural resources, while also supporting the effective use of infrastructure and local labor. These elements help shape culturally grounded storytelling and community-led tourism experiences that contribute to resource conservation. The study also identifies several management challenges, as well as outcomes rooted in the local wisdom of the Turatea people, particularly their emphasis on harmony between human practices, traditional values, and the coastal environment. Overall, the findings reveal how indigenous knowledge can be strategically used to strengthen the tourism village program. This study contributes to rural tourism scholarship by emphasizing the importance of local philosophy, customary involvement, and conservation-oriented reinterpretation of resources in community-based tourism management.
Climate anxiety (eco-anxiety) has gained increasing attention within environmental psychology as both a potential psychological stressor and a possible driver of pro-environmental action. This study examines the relationship between environmental psychological factors and responsible tourist behavior in a combined Portuguese-speaking sample (N = 465) from Portugal and Brazil. Data were collected through an online survey using validated instruments, including the Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS), the GAD-7 (generalized anxiety), the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6), the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP), a mindfulness scale, and measures of climate information exposure and pro-environmental behaviors. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of both climate anxiety and responsible tourist behavior. Results indicate that climate anxiety is positively associated with generalized anxiety, climate concern, and the perceived interference of anxiety in daily life, while higher levels of mental self-control act as a protective factor. Exposure to climate-related information is associated with higher levels of climate anxiety. Regarding responsible tourist behavior, the strongest predictors include greater exposure to climate information, stronger everyday pro-environmental behavior, higher environmental values, and lower red meat consumption. These findings suggest the presence of behavioral consistency across contexts, with everyday sustainable practices extending into tourism behavior. Climate anxiety shows a positive but non-significant tendency, indicating a potential motivational role when combined with other cognitive and behavioral factors. These findings contribute to sustainable tourism research by highlighting the complex role of eco-anxiety and the importance of psychological, behavioral, and informational factors in shaping responsible travel behavior.
IntroductionTourism is widely promoted as a development pathway, yet its effect on income inequality remains contested. This study examines the tourism-inequality relationship across Turkey's 26 NUTS-2 regions using a panel dataset for 2014-2024 (N = 285).MethodsApplying the Mundlak correlated random effects estimator, we decompose the nexus into within-region (temporal) and between-region (structural) components within a single model, basing inference on CR1 and CR2 small-cluster-corrected Wald tests and a wild cluster bootstrap (B = 4,999 Rademacher draws).ResultsFor the Gini specification, the within component is negative and marginally significant (βw = β0.0148, p = 0.082), while the between component is positive and marginally significant (βb = +0.0076, p = 0.094). The two components are statistically distinguishable under both CR1 (χ2 = 6.92, p = 0.009) and CR2 (χ2 = 6.43, p = 0.011) tests, and the divergence persists across per-capita, log-population, and population-density robustness checks, with WCR p-values below 0.05 across all four specifications.DiscussionThe within-region channel is consistent with labor-income compression, as tourism employment concentrated in lower-wage service occupations compresses the wage distribution relative to the regional baseline; the between-region channel reflects structural agglomeration, since high-tourism regions are simultaneously high-inequality regions. The nexus therefore operates through structurally opposed mechanisms at different analytical scales and cannot be captured by a single coefficient, carrying conditional implications for spatially differentiated tourism development policy.
This study examines how tourist gaze theory can contribute to the development of effective city branding strategies taking the city of Jaffna, Sri Lanka as a case study. By examining how tourists perceive and visually engage with the city's landscape, cultural symbols, and heritage sites, the study identifies the dominant gazes shaping visitor experiences. Then the ways these gazes can effectively be used to create a successful branding and promotional campaign to make Jaffna a distinctive urban tourism destination are analyzed. The study follows qualitative approaches with a cross-sectional design and inductive procedures. Primary data collection is based on extracting information from tourists, professionals, business leaders, officials, and other stakeholders, chosen through “purposive” sampling, connected to the industry through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Secondary data is collected from numerous journal articles and other accepted material that have been published in the past. Case studies are also used to highlight the strategies that have been used by a few cities around the world. By integrating insights from tourist gaze theory with city branding research, this study aims to contribute both to tourism theory and to practical destination development strategies. The research identifies the dominant forms of tourist gaze shaping visitor perceptions of the destination, including cultural, religious, environmental, and historical gazes. The findings reveal that tourism in Jaffna is structured around multiple and evolving gazes, reflecting the city's unique cultural identity, heritage assets, and post-conflict transformation. However, significant challenges related to infrastructure, accessibility, governance, and market positioning limit the city's ability to fully capitalize on these assets. The study argues that effective city branding requires aligning branding strategies with the elements that attract and sustain the tourist gaze, while ensuring that the destination experience matches the projected image. By integrating tourist gaze theory with city branding, this research contributes to both tourism theory and practice, offering insights for developing sustainable and culturally grounded branding strategies in emerging tourism destinations.
Overtourism scholarship has predominantly examined urban destinations in the Global North, leaving a significant gap in understanding how overtourism manifests in rural cultural heritage sites in developing countries. This study investigates the intersection of overtourism and cultural heritage preservation in Penglipuran traditional village, Bali, Indonesia, where Indigenous governance institutions actively mediate tourism pressures. Employing an exploratory qualitative case study design, data were collected through field observations, semi-structured interviews with key community actors, and documentary analysis across three fieldwork periods between November 2023 and August 2024. Since the lifting of COVID-19 travel restrictions, tourist arrivals surged from approximately 147,000 in 2021 to over 956,000 in 2023. The study identifies three interacting enabling factors driving this growth: the uniqueness of the village's spatial landscape design rooted in the Tri Mandala cosmological framework; the relaxation of national travel policies; and the community's cultural outlook shaped by the Tri Hita Karana philosophy, which paradoxically attracts visitors through its very hospitality. The findings reveal that overtourism manifests primarily through non-material disruptions — particularly the encroachment upon residents' private and sacred spaces — rather than physical environmental degradation. Critically, Indigenous governance mechanisms, including customary law (awig-awig), function as both resilience strategies against and enablers of tourism pressure. By situating these findings within gentrification theory and Global South tourism discourse, this study introduces the concept of socio-spatial saturation and demonstrates how horizontal frictions among tourism actors produce distinctive forms of overtourism that challenge Western-centric analytical frameworks.
IntroductionSustainable tourism development increasingly depends on the ability of tourism destinations to support learning, cooperation, and competence development among different stakeholders. In this context, education and lifelong learning are receiving increasing attention as mechanisms that may contribute to more responsible tourism practices. This paper examines how place-based lifelong learning initiatives targeting children may contribute to the development of Learning Tourism Destinations by fostering sustainability competences and responsible tourism awareness among future destination stakeholders.MethodsThe study adopts a qualitative single-case study design focusing on the “My Hospitality' initiative developed by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels in Greece. The analysis is based on qualitative document analysis of educational and institutional material, including teachers' guides, student worksheets, illustrated stories and activity descriptions. The analytical process was guided by the Learning Tourism Destination framework and the GreenComp sustainability competence framework.ResultsThe findings suggest that the initiative supports destination-level learning through experiential and place-based educational practices, storytelling-based pedagogical tools and collaborative stakeholder networks linking schools, local hotel associations, tourism enterprises, and local communities. The program also positions children as future tourism stakeholders and introduces competences associated with tourism awareness, hospitality values, cooperation, diversity and responsible tourism behavior.DiscussionThe study contributes to discussions on tourism pedagogy, sustainability competences and destination-level learning by highlighting the role of public tourism organizations in connecting the tourism industry, education and local communities. At the same time, the findings suggest that sustainability-oriented tourism learning may begin at early stages of schooling through place-based and experiential educational approaches. The study also underline the practical importance of cooperation between tourism organizations, schools and local stakeholder networks in supporting long-term destination learning.
This study examines how perceived interactivity, cultural accessibility, and experience quality shape tourist satisfaction, perceived value, tourist loyalty, and place attachment in Malaysia's creative tourism context. Drawing on Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory, Service-Dominant Logic, and Place Attachment Theory, the study develops an integrated framework linking participatory experience attributes with evaluative, behavioral, and emotional outcomes. Using survey data from 500 visitors across Penang, Malacca, and Kuala Lumpur and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the findings show that all three experiential attributes significantly influence satisfaction, perceived value, and loyalty. Cultural accessibility emerges as one of the strongest and most consistent predictors, especially for satisfaction and perceived value. Satisfaction and loyalty mediate the relationship between experiential attributes and place attachment, while expectancy confirmation shows only limited moderating influence, with most moderation paths unsupported. The study contributes to creative tourism literature by clarifying how participatory and culturally accessible experiences are translated into place attachment through satisfaction, value, and loyalty mechanisms. Practically, the findings highlight the importance of designing accessible, interactive, and high-quality cultural experiences that foster both positive evaluations and deeper emotional connections with destinations.
