Virtual reality technology has been widely applied in the tourism industry, but the literature examining the relationship between the virtual tourism experience and cultural dissemination behavior is limited. This present study examines how a virtual reality tourism experience could stimulate tourists’ cultural dissemination behavior intention. It does so by developing a moderated mediation model to explore how virtual reality tourism uses digital technology to improve tourists’ experiential value, enhances their pride, and then affects their cultural dissemination behavior intentions. Results derived from a sample of 359 respondents show that VR experiential value can stimulate tourists’ cultural dissemination behavior and that the link between VR experiential value and tourists’ cultural dissemination behavior is mediated by pride. Furthermore, the cultural value of individual collectivism moderates the relationship between VR experiential value and pride. This study extends the theoretical understanding of virtual reality tourism from the emotional perspective and also has practical implications for VR design and destination marketing.

The industrial transformation of hot spring villages is an important means to promote the sustainable development of the rural economy and achieve common prosperity. This study aims to explore the models of hot spring industrial transformation and reveal the influencing mechanisms in hot spring villages. Based on the theory of rural industrial transformation, an evaluation index system was constructed to measure rural industrial development by using the attribute data of enterprises in hot spring villages. Taking 19 typical hot spring villages in Fujian Province of China as examples, this study explores the process, models and influencing factors of the industrial transformation of hot spring villages from a sustainable perspective. Research results show that (1) the industrial transformation of the hot spring village includes the initial development stage and the rapid development stage, with the leading industries being transformed into service industries. (2) The industrial transformation of the hot spring village presents a gradual transformation model from hot spring aquaculture to hot spring processing and hot spring services, which not only reflects the transformation process of the hot spring village from the development of its primary industry to that of its secondary and tertiary industries, but also reveals the transformation trend of specialization and the high-end productive service industry and the convenient and high-quality transformation process of the living service industry. (3) The influencing factors of the industrial transformation of the hot spring village mainly include location conditions, the demand of the rural hot spring tourism market, government funding policy support and the choices of local villagers. This study not only enriches the theory of industrial transformation in resource-based rural areas, but also provides decision-making references for the sustainable development of hot spring villages in practice.