Scholars argue that the ubiquity of the “virtual panda”—the panda people meet in zoos and consume as souvenirs, online memes, or videos—exists in a state of hybridity between wild and domesticated. The species has garnered a significant amount of attention because of their iconic status and because of how cute they are to an adoring crowd. However, given the degree of regard tourists have for the panda, there is a dearth of research on different types of visitors to captive panda venues. In filling this gap, we investigated (1) how deeply Chinese “fans” and “non-fans” consider the welfare of captive giant pandas, and (2) if these groups differ in their assessment of whether giant pandas consent to being used as tourist attractions. In both aims, we apply a recent model on animal welfare and animal consent to giant pandas of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Wildlife tourism is one of the strongest-performing sectors in the global tourism market. While tourists’ preferences for and affection towards animals are a cornerstone of the industry, a better understanding of how experiences, including animal–tourist encounters and visitation frequency, influence visitors’ animal preferences is required. Through a comparison of preferences among first-time and repeat visitors of four species (giant panda “Ailuropoda melanoleuca”, red panda “Ailurus fulgens”, peafowl “Pavo cristatus”, and swan “Cygnus”), both before and after animal encounters at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (Panda Base), the results show that different species elicit varied and, at times, contrasting tourist preferences. As a result, animal preferences in wildlife tourism can vary based on different stages of visitation. Highlighting this dynamic relationship between animal preferences and visitation experiences is further elucidated through consumer learning theory and lively capital. The outcomes of this study contribute to a deeper grasp of human–animal interactions and have broader implications for the development of conservation programs in captive wildlife venues.

Despite lacking clear historical significance, the appeal pandas have to the people of China has played an integral role in the emergence of the country's cultural identity and ideals. Few studies have explored the giant panda due to the ongoing dialogue between the West and China, which, according to Edward Said, is permeated with imperialist, colonial, and orientalist flavors. In 1869, the French missionary Armand David encountered a dead specimen of a giant panda in Baoxing, Sichuan, which sparked the beginning of this dialogue. David shipped the skin to Paris, where the animal was named and aesthetically recreated for the first time for Western audiences. In this paper, we approach the giant panda as a dark tourism attraction embodying a process of making and remaking Chinese national identities over the past two centuries. Using “virtual curating” to study the Giant Panda Museum located at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, we demonstrate that the giant panda, which has achieved iconic status in China, represents a national history that is dark, backward, and based on suffering and death. We argue that understanding the giant panda's history as a dark tourism attraction provides an ethical vantage point from which to perceive tourist-panda relationships.

Effectively prediction of the tourism demand is of great significance to rationally allocate resources, improve service quality, and maintain the sustainable development of scenic spots. Since tourism demand is affected by the factors of climate, holidays, and weekdays, it is a challenge to design an accurate forecasting model obtaining complex features in tourism demand data. To overcome these problems, we specially consider the influence of environmental factors and devise a forecasting model based on ensemble learning. The model first generates several sub-models, and each sub-model learns the features of time series by selecting informative sequences for reconstructing the forecasting input. A novel technique is devised to aggregate the outputs of these sub-models to make the forecasting more robust to the non-linear and seasonal features. Tourism demand data of Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in recent 5 years is used as a case to validate the effectiveness of our scheme. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can accurately forecasting tourism demand, which can help Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to improve the quality of tourism management and achieve sustainable development. Therefore, the proposed scheme has good potential to be applied to accurately forecast time series with non-linear and seasonal features.

Zoos consistently implement codes of conduct in efforts to manage visitor behaviour. However, few studies have examined the use of the codes of conduct in zoos, even though they carry significant ethical implications regarding the relationship between humans and animals in society. This study provides an explorative investigation into the use of codes of conduct at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (Panda Base). Positioning the Panda Base as a place to negotiate the boundaries between humans and animals, this study surveyed visitors’ initial engagement with the Base’s code of conduct, their compliance with the code, and their assessment of the code. The findings point to a significant disparity between how visitors engage with and perceive the value of the code, which failed to prevent visitors from having close contact with animals at the Panda Base. We argue that Foucault’s philosophy on taboos in modern society can help us understand the ineffectiveness of the codes of conduct in zoos. However, Kant’s philosophy can orient human-animal interactions more ethically and provide an opportunity to consider the significance of codes of conduct in zoos. Suggestions for improving the effectiveness of codes of conduct at zoos are provided.

Tourists consistently demonstrate the need to touch wildlife, although policies often deny these experiences because of the psychological and physiological impacts on animals. However, philosophers contend that humans can learn to empathize with animals by feeling their way into the plight of animals through touch. Facing this dilemma, the paper asks if human touch can be ethically experienced in tourist interactions with animals by employing animal health warning labels. Using the case of “holding a panda” at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan, China, the study investigates this dilemma through Johann Gottfried Herder’s philosophy on empathy and touch against the no-touch policies. A survey containing four scenarios shows that the use of payment can serve as a more effective tool than ethical appeal in reducing people’s decision to hold a panda through its inclusion of additional factors in the decision process. However, ethical touch building on animal health warning labels demands spaces for mutual respect, conservation awareness, and the recognition of health risks through a direct confrontation of the established emotional and sensual aesthetic appeal of cuteness between visitors and the panda. It is found that a combined use of payment and ethical appeal is necessary to restructure visitors’ willingness to hold a panda.