Energy and environment form a nexus in which residents are the owners of tourism energy resources. Only a few studies have focused on the energy literacy of residents in ethnic tourism destinations and its impact on sustainable tourism. Using a qualitative research approach through field works and in-depth interviews in the Ping’an Village, Longji Terraces Scenic Area, this study explored the relationships between the energy literacy of residents and sustainable tourism in ethnic areas. The result showed that the energy literacy of the ethnic residents of Pingan village in terms of knowledge, attitude, and behavior has increased in line with the development of tourism, and both external and internal factors contribute to the improvement. Besides, the promotion of energy literacy among the residents not only has a positive impact on the tourists’ behavior but also brings about effective improvements in the local energy use structure and infrastructure, thus contributing to the sustainable development of tourism. This research extends the understanding of energy literacy from the perspective of ethnic residents and changes in energy literacy in remote ethnic villages under tourism development. The results also deepen our understanding of such changes in the behavior of tourists and tourism destination sustainability and enrich the empirical research to promote energy conservation and sustainable tourism development in ethnic areas.

The main challenge for sustainable events is to attract residents to participate and to continue participating. Motivation can be used to explain a place and the intention to revisit a place. The main purpose of this study was to explore residents’ place meanings at Peony Culture Festival Luoyang China (PCFLC) and the impact of residents’ motivation on place meaning and place satisfaction with respect to PCFLC. A sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted. In-depth interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data. The thematic analysis yielded four themes of residents’ place meanings in PCFLC. Structural equation modeling via the bootstrap approach was used to examine the role of residents’ motivation in place making in PCLFC. The results indicated that residents’ place meanings in PCFLC consisted of self-identification, self-development, economic dependence, and leisure, which enriched the types of place meanings. In addition, place meaning had a mediating role in the relationship between autonomous motivation and place satisfaction and a masking role in the relationship between controlled motivation and place satisfaction from the perspective of the self-determination theory. The paper provides a theoretical perspective to explain the effects of motivation on place making and puts forward a practical proposal for the products and marketing of events.

Energy is an essential topic owing to the severe environmental problems faced worldwide, especially in underdeveloped rural areas. Energy literacy is closely related to energy consumption and conservation behaviors in daily life. Although the energy attitudes and behaviors of communities can determine the sustainable development of rural tourism, less attention has been paid to the energy literacy of rural communities. This study adopted a measurable scale to compare the energy literacy levels between 188 questionnaires from rural residents in tourism communities and 195 questionnaires from non-tourism communities both in the Jizhou District, China. A theoretical model was constructed to investigate the relationships between the variables. Additionally, this study verified the influence of rural tourism activities on communities’ energy literacy by comparing different villages. The results showed that rural communities have high levels of energy literacy in the knowledge, attitude, and behavioral sectors. Positive relationships between knowledge and attitude and between attitudes and behaviors were estimated. However, the positive impact of knowledge on behavior was inconspicuous. The most important theoretical contribution of this study is the confirmation of the significant differences in energy literacy between traditional and rural tourism destination communities, thus proving the improvement in communities’ energy literacy induced by tourism development. Finally, this study presents practical implications for policymakers.