The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had an unprecedented impact on global tourism, and the tourism industry has not recovered from the effects of the pandemic in most countries. Previous studies have researched the impact of epidemics on the number of tourists, but research on their impact on the tourism flow network is still limited. This research focuses on Hubei Province as a case study by obtaining tourism flow data for 2019 and 2020. This study used network analysis methods to research the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism flow network and its recovery after the pandemic. The results show that COVID-19 has a substantial short-term impact on tourism flow, with a recovery period of approximately 20 weeks. However, there are differences in recovery in various regions. The tourism flow network in large cities and areas severely affected by the pandemic recovered slowly, while rural and natural scenic spots recovered faster. Simultaneously, the attraction radiuses of tourist destinations shrank significantly, and tourist markets became more concentrated. Meanwhile, destinations in the suburbs, rural areas, and small cities obtained new opportunities in the short term. Finally, this research provides suggestions for the recovery of tourism after the pandemic.

The concept of strong sustainability suggests that natural capital is irreplaceable and emphasizes that human natural consumption cannot exceed the carrying capacity of the ecological environment. In the realistic context of tightening resource constraints and ecological degradation, how to explore the optimal economic and well-being output under certain ecological constraints has become an important topic in sustainability research. Ecological well-being performance (EWP) can comprehensively reflect the efficiency of natural resources and ecological inputs into the well-being level and has become an important tool for sustainable development research. Based on strong sustainability, this paper constructs an EWP evaluation index system. It decomposes EWP into two stages: ecological economy and economic well-being, which opens the “black box” of the ecological well-being conversion process. PCA-DEA, the network super-efficiency Epsilon-based measure (Network SEBM) model, and Geodetector are used to dynamically measure the EWP in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) from 2010 to 2020 and analyze its spatial and temporal characteristics and influencing factors. The results show that (1) temporally, the EWP in the TGRA shows an increasing trend from 2010 to 2020, but the overall level is low. Spatially, it shows a high pattern in the east and low in the west, and spatial differences are gradually decreasing; (2) ecological economic efficiency is significantly lower than economic well-being efficiency, and ecological economic efficiency is the main reason limiting the improvement in EWP in the TGRA. The ecological well-being situation of the TGRA is not optimistic; (3) there is an overall problem of excessive ecological input and insufficient per-capita GDP and well-being output in the TGRA, and decisions should be made according to local conditions; (4) the level of economic development has an EWP level that plays a dominant role and also has a greater relationship with the policy system, socioeconomic conditions, and natural environment.