The advent of the Metaverse, a convergence of virtual and physical realities, presents unprecedented opportunities for promoting cultural tourism along the historic Silk Roads within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework. However, this emerging technology’s potential remains largely unexplored in the context of cultural heritage preservation and its promotion. The aim of this study is to address this gap by empirically examining how the Metaverse can be harnessed to improve tourists’ experiences, support sustainable tourism development, and promote cultural exchange along the Silk Roads. In this study, we employed a mixed-methods approach grounded in attribution theory, using both surveys and semi-structured interviews with Silk Road tourists who had been exposed to Metaverse applications. To investigate the relationships between Metaverse features, tourists’ attributions, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions, we used structural equation modeling and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that perceived immersion, avatar identification, and cultural authenticity significantly influenced tourists’ internal, stable, and controllable attributions. Interviews further highlighted the Metaverse’s potential to promote accessibility, interpretation, and engagement with Silk Road heritage, while also raising sociocultural and ethical considerations. This paper also showcases the development of Metaverse digital twin prototypes for several iconic Silk Road cities to demonstrate the potential for participatory virtual environments to promote cultural heritage preservation, accessibility, and sustainable tourism. The study’s findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of Metaverse tourism and the application of attribution theory, offering practical insight for the responsible and effective harnessing of this transformative technology. This research provides actionable recommendations for policymakers, destination managers, and technology providers to optimize the Metaverse’s potential for cultural tourism along the Silk Roads. This has great potential in promoting the BRI’s connectivity and cooperation objectives. This paper lays the foundation for future research and responsible innovation at the intersection of emerging technologies, cultural heritage, and sustainable tourism development.

In New York City, the population of Chinese Americans has grown faster than that of any other minority racial/ethnic group, and now this community constitutes almost half of all Chinese Americans living in the northeastern United States. Nonetheless, scant research attention has been given to Chinese American ethnic enclaves and little is known about the health status of their residents. This study aims to help address this gap in the literature by: (1) improving our understanding of the spatial settlement of Chinese Americans living in New York City from 2000 to 2016; and (2) assessing associations between a New York City resident's likelihood of living in a Chinese American enclave and their access to health care and perceived health status, two measures of community health. In support of this aim, this study establishes a robust criterion for defining ethnic enclaves at the Census tract level in New York City as the communities of interest in this paper. An ethnic enclave is defined as an area at the Census tract level with high dissimilarity and a spatial cluster of Chinese Americans. The spatial findings were that Chinese Americans in New York City were least segregated from other Asian American residents, somewhat segregated from White residents, and most segregated from Black residents. Also, the population density of Chinese Americans increased since 2000, as reflected by their declining exposure index with other Asian Americans. Results from logistic regression indicated that the probability of living in a Chinese American enclave was negatively associated with positive self-perception of general health and positively associated with delays in receiving health care. For Chinese American residents of New York City, living in an ethnic enclave was also associated with both lower socioeconomic status and poorer community health.

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods have been extensively employed by researchers in the public transport (PT) sector. While many studies utilize a single MCDM method, employing multiple MCDM methods can achieve more robust results. Furthermore, integrated MCDM methods have the potential to address the weaknesses and limitations inherent in single MCDM method. In this study, we address the limitations of single MCDM methods by integrating the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with the analytic network process (ANP) to evaluate public transport networks performance. Based on the established public transport criteria matrix AHP model, we identify interdependencies among criteria. The AHP-ANP method is then applied to assess public transport networks in three case study cities in Australia. The sensitivity analysis conducted on both the AHP and integrated AHP-ANP approaches highlights the influence of criteria interdependency. This research contributes to mitigating the limitations of AHP method and applies AHP-ANP model to provide decision-makers with insights to enhance PT network performance and achieve smart PT network management.

With frequent occurrences of global public events, the prices of national grains continue to soar. As one of the countries with the largest populations globally, China has always regarded food security as a fundamental cornerstone of its development. However, with the continuous emergence of factors such as urbanization, scarcity of land resources, and climate change, China’s food security faces unprecedented challenges. Hence, this study empirically examines the impact of digital inclusive finance on multi-dimensional food security based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011–2020. The research found that China’s multi-dimensional food security level from 2011–2020 showed a stable yet rising trend, with the spatial pattern of each location generally consistent with the overall trend. The Theil index for China’s multi-dimensional food security showed an upward trend from 2011–2020. Digital inclusive finance can promote multi-dimensional food security. The breadth of coverage and depth of use of digital inclusive finance have a significant promoting effect on safeguarding multi-dimensional food security, while the degree of digitization has not played a promoting role. Digital inclusive finance mainly ensures multi-dimensional food security through two pathways: promoting urbanization levels and enhancing marketization levels.

This paper examines the potential of emerging immersive technologies like the Metaverse to promote the Silk Road cultural heritage within the framework of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The ancient Silk Roads facilitated vibrant pan-Eurasian exchange for over 1500 years, catalyzing early globalization. Modern connectivity initiatives like China's BRI focus extensively on infrastructure to revive these cultural linkages that defined the historic Silk Roads. However, realizing the tourism and developmental potential of the intercultural legacy tied to architectural sites, motifs, cuisine, beliefs, and artistic traditions diffused along these historic routes faces contemporary challenges around preservation, geopolitics, site deterioration, costs, uneven access, and cultural homogenization. This study explores the implications of Metaverse in revitalizing this heritage in situ and through digital channels. The paper provides a multi-disciplinary approach to aligning digital revitalization plans around the Metaverse for the future that reconnect modern societies with ancient linkages via immersive storytelling of the Silk Roads.