The names of tourism types formed by scholars and practitioners reflect the connotations of various tourism types from different aspects and carry a wealth of tourism knowledge. The documents containing the names and connotations of 232 tourism types were sorted from the Springer Encyclopedia of Tourism and 16 major international academic journals. These documents were analyzed using the coding method of grounded theory. A total of 155 naming elements, 22 subcategories, and six categories were extracted. These naming elements, subcategories, and categories constitute the tourism-type ontology, which is the first tourism-type classification framework. Furthermore, the construction of tourism-type ontology enriches the existing research on overall tourism knowledge. The tourism-type ontology can also be used as a preliminary framework for organizing overall tourism knowledge and a foundation for constructing a unified tourism-type naming rule.

In China, rural summer health tourism for the urban elderly (RSHTUE) is growing rapidly, but the drivers of RSHTUE development have not been systematically explored. First, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with operators, village leaders, local government staff, and elderly tourists in Zhongyuan Township, Jiangxi Province, China: a typical township for developing RSHTUE. Second, interview data were thematically coded to extract the preliminary drivers. Third, the preliminary drivers supported by the literature or original interview quotes were considered the final drivers. Lastly, subcategories and categories were extracted from the final drivers by thematic coding to form a framework of drivers for RSHTUE development. The results show that the framework driving RSHTUE development includes two categories: demand and supply. Nine demand drivers were clustered into four subcategories: economic, social, cultural, and natural. A total of 21 supply drivers were clustered into five subcategories: economic, social, political, cultural, and natural. This study enriches the knowledge of RSHTUE development drivers. The literature supporting each driver was systematically reviewed. RSHTUE-relevant participants can use these drivers to identify villages’ suitability for developing RSHTUE and to explore countermeasures for the sustainable development of RSHTUE. The literature on each driver can provide support for subsequent studies.

The sustainable development of Rural Summer Health Tourism for the Urban Elderly (RSHTUE) is fundamentally tied to the rational utilization of rural land. Land use is a dynamic process involving multiple stakeholders; it requires predictive modeling of its evolution to ensure long-term sustainability. This study integrates key factors under rigid boundary constraints to establish decision-making rules for government, villager, and tourist agents. Taking Zhongyuan Township as a research site, we constructed a multi-agent simulation model by integrating environmental data processed in ArcGIS with decision-making rules encoded in NetLogo. Through scenario analysis, we simulate the evolution of tourism land use for 2028 and 2033 under three distinct development scenarios: tourism-led, ecological protection, and rural belt joint. The results demonstrate that each scenario leads to markedly different spatial patterns. The model developed in this study can directly simulate land use in RSHTUE destination villages while also being applicable to other types of rural tourism by adjusting relevant parameters. The model serves as a “policy laboratory” to simulate and compare the effects of different policy scenarios, thereby enabling the generation of land use strategies that balance multi-stakeholder sustainable development and providing an empirical basis for policy formulation and optimization.

The rapid development of rural tourism has become a significant force in promoting rural revitalization. However, the unbalanced distribution of value increment generated by the land tourism-oriented transformation has led to various conflicts and has affected the sustainable development of rural tourism. This study selected Zhongyuan Township, Jing’an County, Jiangxi Province, China, as the research site. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys from government entities, village collectives, and investors, yielding 24 interview transcripts and 665 valid questionnaires. By integrating the Shapley value method, grounded theory, structural equation modeling, and the analytic hierarchy process, this study was conducted according to the frame-work of “tracing influencing factors, deconstructing influence mechanisms, and optimizing the distribution model”. The data were analyzed using grounded theory and structural equation modeling. The results indicated that, in addition to the factors influencing land value increment, policy drivers and risk factors also exerted a direct and significant impact on value increment distribution. Based on these findings, the traditional Shapley value model was optimized to produce a more equitable and efficient distribution framework. The optimized value increment distribution model overcomes the limitations of the traditional Shapley value method in addressing complex multi-stakeholder interests, not only making the distribution of land value increment in rural tourism contexts more equitable and efficient but also providing a scientific decision-making tool for balancing economic development, social equity, and ecological protection—laying a solid foundation for the sustainable development of rural tourism destinations. This study provides a scientific decision-making tool for balancing stakeholder interests in rural tourism development and contributes to the theoretical refinement of benefit distribution mechanisms in sustainable tourism.

This study develops a methodological framework for measuring energy conservation and CO₂ emission reductions that considers both origins and destinations. The framework encompasses four key aspects: transportation, accommodation, cooking, and housing rehabilitation. Data were collected through a literature review, questionnaire surveys, and field measurement tracking. Compared to living in the origin, senior tourists from Nanchang visiting Zhongyuan Township in China for summer tourism can save 5.747 MJ of energy and reduce CO₂ emissions by 3.303 kg per capita per day. An in-depth analysis indicated that the research site could further enhance energy conservation and reduce CO₂ emissions by improving public transportation services, optimizing the energy structure of the destination, and diversifying the available recreational offerings. Depending on the characteristics of the destination and the primary origin, summer or winter tourism in various countries or regions can employ the methodological framework to evaluate energy conservation and CO₂ emission reductions after identifying specific parameters. The improved pathways identified through this research can serve as a checklist for other countries or regions aiming to explore energy conservation and CO₂-emission-reduction pathways for summer or winter tourism. Enhancing climate-driven tourism development may offer a new avenue for the tourism industry to contribute to carbon reduction targets.