Kaijun Cao

Tourism plays an important role in promoting rural transformation and development globally. Based on the logical relationship between tourism and rural development, this study constructs a tourism and rural development index using two models. The projection pursuit model is used to analyse the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the level of tourism and rural development, while the coupling coordination degree model measures the relationship in the counties of four southern Xinjiang prefectures from 2010 to 2019. A panel regression model is used to analyse the influencing factors of the coupling coordination relationship between them. The results show the following: (1) The level of tourism and rural development fluctuates and increases in time, and both demonstrate high‐level agglomeration in some counties (cities) in the northeast and southwest of the four prefectures, spatially. (2) During the study period, the level of tourism and rural development changed from ‘high coupling and serious imbalance’ to ‘high coupling and barely coordinated’. Spatially, the degree of coupling is similar to the high‐value region of the coupling coordination degree. Over time, the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling degree decreases and the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling coordination degree increases. (3) The main influencing factors for the coordinated development of tourism and rural areas are tourism resource endowment, tourist density index, rural employees, rural per capita disposable income, and tourism contribution rate.

World Natural Heritage Site (WNHS) is a typical demonstration of global diversity protection. To realize the sustainable development of WNHSs under the contradiction of protection and utilization, an index system based on the framework of exposure- sensitivity- resilience was constructed to diagnose the ecological degradation of WNHSs, and the degree and structure of ecological degradation were evaluated and visualized in Bogda, Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang. The results show that: (1) The criterion layers of threat factors, resilience and changes of heritage value showed different spatial distribution characteristics. (2) The level of ecological degradation in Bogda site was mainly mild degradation, while the degradation was serious around the scenic spots with intensive tourist activities and along the road. The seriously degraded area was the least, accounting for 1.89% of the study area, followed by ecological health area (6.22%), moderately degraded area (13.87%), and mildly degraded area (78.03%). (3) The overall conservation management status in Bogda site remained good. Low -low -low is the main type of ecological degradation, followed by high -high -high, high -high -low, low -high -high and low -high -high. The diagnosis and analysis of ecological degradation would provide scientific basis for the conservation, management and ecological restoration of Bogda site.

Effectively regulating and managing the uncivilized tourism behavior of tourists is a key strategy for the sustainable development of tourism destinations. In this paper, the dissonance–neutralization model was proposed by integrating planned behavior, cognitive dissonance, and neutralization theories. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the impact and effect of this model on the uncivilized tourism behavior of 387 tourists at natural heritage sites. Overall, the research results show the following: (1) Uncivilized tourism behavior is not only determined by behavioral intention and perceived behavioral control. Attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control also all have a significant influence on behavioral intention. (2) Cognitive dissonance is a parallel predictor of behavior. (3) Neutralization techniques can effectively reduce cognitive dissonance, thus allowing uncivilized tourist behavior to continue.

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) are direct influences on human well-being and sustainable development, and they have become increasingly important in the development and progress of society. This paper reviewed 1248 papers on CESs by using VOSviewer and CiteSpace software. On this basis, we also reviewed 179 selected empirical papers related to this field, with regards to geographical locations, study objects, evaluation methods, and categories. The results show that: (1) the number of publications related to cultural services has increased year by year, and Ecosystem Services, Ecological Indicators, and Sustainability are the top three journals with the greatest amount of research published; (2) ecosystem services, benefits, management, and social–ecological systems are perceptions closely related to CES research, which are also popular topics in the field; (3) the results of a keyword detection show that the cultural landscapes, patterns, mental health services, social value, and other keywords were popular keywords used from 2005 to 2021; (4) CESs have mainly attracted the attention of many developed countries, and the cultural services in cities, oceans, and coastal areas have become the focus for researchers; (5) the recreation and ecotourism, and aesthetic values are the common categories of the CES empirical studies, while the knowledge system and the cultural diversity are the two categories with the least amount of research; (6) the evaluation methods of CESs are mostly carried out using a traditional questionnaire and interview, but mapping and modeling methods have been widely used in recent years.

Tourism is a highly climate-sensitive sector, and the suitability of climate and weather can be a central motivation for travel. Through the tourism climate index (TCI), this study uses daily data from the period of 1980 to 2014 to identify the spatial and temporal distribution of climatic conditions in Xinjiang of China with regard to its climatic attractiveness for general tourism. The analytical results indicate that the climatic conditions of the most suitable months for tourism in Xinjiang are April, May, September, and October. The best climatic condition (TCI > 80) for tourism activities is found in September in most parts of Xinjiang, except for central Tianshan and Turpan Basins. The climate is not attractive for tourism in Xinjiang during the winter months. The annual average number of climatically suitable days (TCI > 70) are the highest in northwestern Aksu, most parts of Kashgar, and western Hotan. Most parts of northern Xinjiang are favorable for summer travel, with high TCI scores and a high average number of climatically suitable days. By contrast, tourist areas in southern and eastern Xinjiang have favorable climatic conditions during Spring and Autumn. These results can provide useful information to both tourists and the tourism industry.