The soundscape is an essential type of attraction in tourism destinations. Music can serve as a significant tourist attraction that makes people immersed in it. Similarly, while tourists linger in the leisure and recreation environment, they may have a flow experience of the soundscape in tourism attractions. Yet, there is little research about the relationship between tourists’ perception of soundscape and flow experience. Taking Lijiang old town, a world heritage site, as an example, this study explored the dimensions of tourists’ perception of soundscape and soundscape flow experience and examined the influence of soundscape perception on soundscape flow experience. The results indicate that soundscape perception includes three dimensions: preference, comfort, and richness. The flow experience of soundscape is a second-order construct in this research, which contains four dimensions: time distortion, control, enjoyment, and concentration. Besides, preference and richness positively influence flow experience, and flow experience contributes to behavioural intention, whereas comfort does not significantly affect flow experience. This study applied flow theory to soundscape research, which enriches the study of soundscape experience. This study has also provided management strategies for tourism destinations to improve the quality of the soundscape experience.

Since tourists are one of the important stakeholders in World Heritage Sites (WHSs), what factors influence them and how does the impact mechanism work on heritage conversation? In particular, World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHSs) are generally facing threats to their ecological and heritage protection by the influx of tourists. To this end, this study took the perspective of attractions with Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and tourist perceptions of service quality, and used place attachment as a mediator variable. Based on the 565 questionnaires responses by Mount Sanqingshan National Park (MSNP) tourists, the structural equation modelling technical method was adapted to explore the influence and mechanisms of tourist heritage protection. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) the perception of an OUV attraction had a positive effect on place attachment and intention to protect heritage; however, place attachment did not have a mediating effect; (2) service quality had a positive effect on place attachment and intention to protect heritage, yet place attachment did not have a mediating effect; (3) service quality was more effective than the OUV attraction on intention to protect heritage, and affiliate attraction had a ‘core’ trend; and (4) tourists’ place attachment was not accepted as a positive assumption of their intention to protect heritage. Finally, we proposed measures and implications for enhancing the conservation and management of WNHSs, with a focus on building both the tourism industry and sustainable development of WHSs.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has had a major impact on global tourism. We adopted social media data to quantify the change in Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward traveling during the pandemic, as no study has explored whether there is compensatory travel intention under the threat of infectious diseases. Using natural language processing technology and geographic information system technology, our analysis shows that Chinese consumers’ interest in tourism increased during the pandemic. Our results show that travel attitudes can be positively affected by compensatory consumption when travel is restricted by infectious diseases and has implications for tourism scholars, marketing managers, and stakeholders.

Based on the theoretical framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), this study investigates whether tourism development can decrease air pollution. This study applies the panel smooth transition regression approach and panel data for 2005–2019 from 283 prefecture-level cities in China to examine the nonlinear effect of tourism development on PM_2.5, emissions. Our results reveal that the effects of tourism on PM_2.5, emissions vary according to the modes of tourist arrivals. At the national level, the effect of tourism on PM_2.5 emissions exhibits an inverted-U shape. At the regional level, tourism exerts a U-shaped impact on PM_2.5 emissions in eastern China, and tourism is nonlinearly negatively associated with PM_2.5 emissions in central and western China. An important theoretical contribution of our study is the proposal and validation of the U-shaped tourism-induced EKC hypothesis.