Rural tourism serves as a catalyst for rural revitalization and plays an important role in poverty alleviation in Inner Mongolia. This study analyzes the spatial distribution of key villages and star-rated rural (pastoral) households in Inner Mongolia as rural tourism destinations, clarifies their distribution patterns, and contributes to the development of rural tourism in Inner Mongolia. By selecting rural tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia, importing the coordinate points obtained from Baidu Map API into Arc GIS 10.8, and using indices such as the nearest neighbor index, location quotient, kernel density analysis, the geographic concentration index, and the geographic correlation ratio for quantitative analysis, this study explores the distribution patterns and identifies the driving factors influencing the distribution of rural tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia using geographic detectors. The results are:(1) Rural tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia exhibit agglomerated distribution in space, with uneven distribution among different leagues and cities. (2) The spatial density of rural tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia shows the characteristics of “a single core center, with decreasing density toward the periphery, and dispersed secondary cores, and dispersed secondary cores.” The actual geographic concentration index G is 30.23, while the distribution index G 0 under uniform conditions is 29.14. Since G is greater than G 0, a certain degree of agglomeration exists in the spatial distribution of rural tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia, but the overall degree of agglomeration is not strong. (3) Tourism infrastructure, economic development, tourism potential, and natural factors collectively influence the spatial distribution of rural tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia. Among them, economic development, tourism potential, and tourism infrastructure have significant impacts on the distribution of key villages. In terms of subsystems, the number of A-level scenic resources has the highest explanatory power (q=0.848), followed by the number of tourists received (q=0.788), employment in the tertiary industry (q=0.687), and the resident population (q=0.603), which are the main factors influencing the spatial differentiation of rural tourism destinations.

Under the background of “dual carbon”, Taking the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as the research area, based on land use data and local economic data, were used to measure the land use change and carbon emission of the research area from 2000 to 2024, The carbon balance of various cities in Inner Mongolia is zoned and to provide a basis and support for the optimization of territorial space. [Result](1) During the period, the land use dynamics of forest land, construction land and wetland increased, while the changes in the areas of farmland, grassland, water area and unused land decreased. (2) The total carbon emissions of construction land and cultivated land in Inner Mongolia showed an upward trend. The total amount of carbon absorption rose slightly. (3) The total net carbon emissions in 2024 increase by approximately 133% compared to 2000. In terms of carbon budget balance, Hulunbuir City was in a state of carbon balance from 2000 to 2015, but after 2015, all prefecture-level cities have been in an unbalanced state where carbon emissions exceed carbon absorption. (4) The economic contribution rate of carbon emissions in various cities of Inner Mongolia shows significant differences. The cities with an ecological carrying coefficient greater than 1 are Alxa League and Hulun Buir City. (5) Based on the carbon balance analysis, Inner Mongolia are divided into low-carbon development zones, low-carbon economic zones, low-carbon maintenance zones, economic development zones, carbon intensity control zones, and high-carbon optimization zones. The value of this research demonstrates that arid and semi-arid regions can achieve the synergy of ecological protection, economic development, and carbon reduction through land-use optimization. It provides a scientific approach for similar regions to resolve the conflict between development and emission reduction, and it is of great significance for the implementation of the national “dual-carbon” strategy, the construction of ecological security barriers in northern China, and the study of carbon cycles in global arid areas.