This study connected slow tourism with the concept of authenticity and place attachment using a mixed-method approach. Different factors were seen as likely to influence the behavioral intention. Yaxi town (the first international slow city in China) was chosen as the research site. Results show that authenticity in the context of slow tourism include objective authenticity, constructivism authenticity and existential authenticity. Authenticity partly influence place attachment and behavioral intention; two dimensions of place attachment have significant effect on behavioral intention. Findings of this study can be applied to slow tourism marketing and slow destination management.

COVID-19, as a global public health crisis, represents a major concern for international tourism. This study aims to explore the influence of COVID-19 on international tourists’ self-protection motivations, and the role of mass media in this process. Protection motivation theory (PMT) was adopted as the guiding theoretical framework, and mass media coverage was integrated into the model as a moderating construct. Online survey data were collected to explain and predict the protection motivation of potential tourists from South Korea travelling to China under the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed to examine the significant factors that could evoke self-protection motivation. Results indicate that respondents’ perceptions of the severity of the pandemic and self-efficacy as a coping strategy have the greatest impact on self-protection motivations. Furthermore, positive mass media coverage moderates the relationship between self-efficacy and self-protection motivation, while negative mass media coverage moderates the relationship between vulnerability and self-protection motivation. Theoretical and practical implications on how to encourage travel in a post-pandemic period are discussed.

The value of tourism has been included in studies of active aging, and the existing public health implications of the physical and mental health effects of tourism among seniors are recognized as important issues. This study uses a mixed methods research approach to explore the effects of tourism value on the health and mortality risk of older adults, referred to in this paper as seniors. Survival analysis and cohort analysis are combined with the narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with eight convenience-sampled seniors to construct a narrative framework of seniors’ active aging tourism and its intrinsic drivers. The study found that the intrinsic framework of active aging tourism values for seniors has a three-stage continuum, an interaction, and orientation characteristics. There are six intrinsic key value drivers of tourism value and public health for seniors. In addition, this study identifies the personal characteristics and strengths of seniors as important influences on tourism value practices for active aging and public health. This study provides a positive psychological and behavioral research direction for existing research on the value of tourism in active aging. It provides an empirical basis for exploring the intrinsic mechanisms of tourism and public health.

Given the popularity of mobile-based short video apps in recent years, this study aims to examine factors influencing users’ intention to seek travel information on short video platforms. Informed by affordance theory and the technology acceptance model, this study proposes a research model that links various technological affordances to travel information-seeking intention on short video platforms. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in China with 640 respondents recruited from an online panel managed by a survey company to test the proposed model. Results show that four types of technological affordances (i.e. searching, recommendation, meta-voicing and livestreaming) on short video platforms are positively related to users’ diverse perceptions in seeking travel information. Perceived enjoyment promotes users’ perceived ease of use when using short video platforms and significantly enhances potential tourists’ travel information-seeking intention. Finally, perceived usefulness and ease of use also have a positive effect on travel information-seeking intention. This study provides theoretical and practical insights into increasing users’ intention to use short video platforms as travel information source, thereby making rational travel decisions.

This study explores the relationship between mind and body interactions and continuum theory perspectives on senior tourism, active aging, and well-being. Through representative picture interviews with 12 elders in Study I and in-depth interviews with 8 elders in Study II.z the positive psychology model PREMA was applied to the well-being outcomes of senior tourists in study I, the findings identifying positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievements in the presentation of senior tourists’ wellbeing. In Study II, the findings are the effects of mind–body interaction and continuity on senior tourists through narrative analysis, then the role and influence mechanism of sensory interaction, linkage, physical and mental tuning outcomes, and tourism continuity value pursuit constitute the process path of well-being in senior tourism. It will deepen the potential significance of the positive energetic dimension of continuity theory and the dynamic dimension of physical to mental interaction, thus it highlighting the responsibility and practical revelation of society and tourism enterprises in creating well-being outcomes in senior tourism.