This study connected slow tourism with the concept of authenticity and place attachment using a mixed-method approach. Different factors were seen as likely to influence the behavioral intention. Yaxi town (the first international slow city in China) was chosen as the research site. Results show that authenticity in the context of slow tourism include objective authenticity, constructivism authenticity and existential authenticity. Authenticity partly influence place attachment and behavioral intention; two dimensions of place attachment have significant effect on behavioral intention. Findings of this study can be applied to slow tourism marketing and slow destination management.

The night-time economy is an important part of the urban economy and contributes significantly to modern cities’ GDP. The development of night tourism is one of the crucial means to enrich and prosper the night-time economy. Recently, as a popular topic of sustainable development, night tourism has received extensive attention. However, little attention has been paid to night tourism, especially from the emotional perspective of tourists. Furthermore, discussions on how and why tourists become interested in night tourism are still lacking. To fill the research gap, based on the theory of experience economy, we used the concept of lovemarks to explore the influence of tourists’ tourism experience and lovemarks on their brand satisfaction and brand loyalty. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 487 tourists of “Cultural Heritage Night”, a night tourism brand in South Korea. The results indicate that tourists’ entertainment and educational experience significantly influence their lovemarks (both of brand love and respect), and esthetic experience only significantly influences brand respect. Furthermore, the influence of tourists’ lovemarks on brand satisfaction and loyalty is also validated. To retain the sustainable development of night-time economy and night tourism, local authorities and destination managers are recommended to provide night tourism brands (products) with optimal experience effects and entirely emotional and functional attributes.

An in-depth discussion of place attachment in the relationship between residents’ perceived tourism impacts and their support for tourism is still lacking. The predictor of tourism involvement in this relationship has also been underestimated and little attention has been paid to industrial heritage tourism in relation to residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. To fill this gap, we extend upon the existing studies of residents’ attitudes toward tourism with place attachment (both place identity and place dependence) and tourism involvement based on social exchange theory, attitude theory, and the theory of planned behavior. A self-administered survey was completed by 336 residents of Huangshi, a city undergoing a transition to industrial heritage tourism in China. The findings show that residents’ support for tourism is the result of a complete behavior generation process. This has gradually formed through tourism involvement, cognition, affection, and behavior intention, emphasizing the importance of participation and affective attitude in determining residents’ attitudes toward tourism. To maintain the sustainable development of industrial heritage tourism in the economic transition from an old industrial region to new sectors, local authorities should attach more importance to strengthening residents’ native emotional bonds and concentrate on how to encourage local residents to participate in tourism activities.

Understanding how tourists’ brand experiences impact their existential authenticity, and the role of existential authenticity in the formation mechanism of place attachment to the destination, are key issues for the marketing of a destination. The current study examines the relationship between tourists’ experience, existential authenticity, and place attachment, and the indirect effect of existential authenticity on the relationship between destination brand experience and place attachment from the oriental perspective against the slow tourism background. A self-administered survey was conducted at Yaxi town, the first international slow city in China. A total of 398 samples were analyzed using a two-step approach of the structural equation model (SEM). The findings show that destination brand experience partially impacts existential authenticity, and both the intrapersonal and interpersonal authenticity (the sub-dimensions of existential authenticity) significantly influence place attachment. Additionally, affective and behavioral experience indirectly influence place attachment through existential authenticity. Based on the conclusions, theoretical and practical recommendations are considered.

This study looks at the real-world problems which vision impaired individuals face when they travel. More specifically, this study aims to explore the main factors influencing the leisure tourism behavior of visually impaired individuals. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 26 visually impaired respondents, this study identifies six main factors impacting on the leisure tourism behavior of visually impaired individuals including: tourism products and services, personal psychological factors, social support, community support, personal socio-economic factors, and barrier-free environments. Findings show that visually impaired travelers have strong requirements for auditory, tactile, and physical participation. Support factors such as travel companions/escorts, tour organizers specifically targeting their experiential offerings at the visually impaired, and an accessible environment are important considerations for visually impaired travelers. Findings also show that visually impaired individuals participate in leisure tourism to enhance their own abilities, relieve pressures on their families, break stereotypes associated with the visually impaired, and promote the need for greater tourism development specifically targeting visually impaired travelers. This study also proposes a theoretical model outlining the factors influencing leisure tourism of visually impaired people.

The evaluation of tourism development potential (TDP) is the crucial foundation and critical step for sustainable regional tourism development. Prior studies mainly evaluate TDP through the univariate potential model and the multi-indicator descriptive evaluation. However, these two methods have only limited effectiveness for the destination’s TDP in the context of the mesoscale level. Thus, this study aims to develop an effective multi-dimensional mesoscale to evaluate the destination’s TDP and construct a potential index model. Based on the literature review, this study develops four rule layers (tourism supply and consumption (X₁), the demand and purchasing power of tourist source (X₂), development value of destination resources (X₃), and the contribution of the destination’s tourism industry (X₄)) and 31 factor layers. All the factor layers are then assigned values based on the provincial statistics in China in 2019. Through SPSS 24.0, the current study uses the principal component analysis (PCA) to construct a provincial TDP index model for the research area: $Y=0.2573X_1+0.1305X_2+0.3177X_3+0.2945X_4$. The results show significant regional differences in the TDP index of the provinces along the Belt and Road (study area) in China. Among them, Guangdong has the most extensive TDP index, Qinghai has the smallest TDP index. The study also uses ArcGIS 10.2 for the function of kernel density analysis to visualize provincial TDP and finds significant spatial differences and a central-edge distribution pattern across provinces.