Although the“data-driven”paradigm, anchored in big data and machine learning, has significantly expanded the empirical horizons of tourism research, its inherent methodological limitations are becoming increasingly evident. Concurrently, the emergence of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) marks a transition from“analytical”to“generative”intelligence, catalyzing a methodological revolution in the social sciences. This paper argues that tourism research is undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift: from a“data-driven”approach focused on historical correlations to an “intelligence-generated” paradigm characterized by deep semantic understanding, interactive reasoning, and multi-agent simulation. First, this paper critiques the epistemological bottlenecks of the data-driven paradigm with regard to causal inference and theory building. It then elucidates how the core capabilities of LLMs—contextual awareness, controllable generation, and generative agents—serve as technological cornerstones of the new paradigm. Crucially, this study demonstrates how this shift systematically reconstructs the research lifecycle: inquiry evolves from explaining“facts”to exploring“possibilities”; analysis shifts from mining“correlations”to generating“reasoning”; and theory building transforms from static induction to dynamic“computational experiments.”This transition necessitates a redefinition of the researcher’s role from a data “interpreter” to a “designer”of thought experiments. The study concludes by proposing a forward-looking agenda for navigating the opportunities and ethical challenges of the generative era.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, many hotels have introduced robots to cooperate with employees during service operations. The purpose of human-robot co-production is to free employees from simple and repetitive transactional work so that they have more time to engage in creative and emotional work. However, theoretical research on whether this goal can be achieved is lacking. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this paper explores the process through which human-robot co-production affects employee innovation performance. Through a questionnaire survey of 382 frontline hotel employees and a regression analysis of the data, it is found that human-robot co-production has a positive impact on innovation performance, and challenge appraisal and work engagement play a chain-mediating role in this process. Developmental human resource practices positively moderate the relationship between human-robot co-production and challenge appraisal, and between human-robot co-production and work engagement. The research conclusions enrich the literature on human-robot interaction and employee management in theory and have practical implications for hotel managers seeking to make better use of robot technology and employees’human capital to improve innovation performance.

Tourism enterprises face multiple uncertainties and challenges in an era of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Based on an investigation of micro and small tourism enterprises in Jiaju Tibetan Villages and Zhonglu Tibetan Village, this study employs procedural grounded theory to reveal the formation mechanism of organizational resilience in micro and small tourism enterprises. The findings indicate that crisis events trigger organizational resilience, promoting a capability-action-capability circular dual-drive interaction mechanism between dynamic capabilities (environmental adaptation capability, resource integration capability, and learning innovation capability) and resource bricolage (human resource, physical, skill, market, institutional, and cultural bricolage), jointly shaping three differentiated levels of outcomes: damage mitigation, survival recovery, and transcending the original status. The theoretical innovation of this research lies in decoding the non-linear interactive relationship between dynamic capabilities and resource bricolage, expanding the theoretical framework of resource bricolage, particularly by adding the dimension of cultural bricolage, and revealing five unique resilience mechanisms for micro-enterprises, including the “one core, two wings” resource integration model and “borrowing strength and momentum” capability compensation. This study provides a new perspective on crisis response strategies for micro and small tourism enterprises and offers important implications for promoting resilient tourism development in vulnerable regions.

Rural tourism clusters are the concentrated embodiment and inevitable result of the scaling, expansion, and standardized development of rural tourism in the new period. However, there are few research results on the development process and analysis of its logical mechanisms. To explore the logical progression and influencing factors of the development process of rural tourism clusters, this study adopts the case study method to deeply analyze the development history of two typical rural tourism cluster villages in Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province, combined with the qualitative research method of grounded theory, and attempts to identify the growth stages and internal mechanisms of rural tourism clusters. The study finds that: (1) Based on the research framework of “process identification-drivers-mechanism analysis”, the development process of rural tourism clusters is divided into four major stages: the origin stage, the growth stage, the consolidation stage, and the demonstration stage. Important drivers of rural tourism cluster development, such as government drive, resource endowment, economic efficiency, human factors, and contingent factors, are identified; (2) It proposes a “spontaneous-guided-regulated” mechanism for the growth of rural tourism clusters, streamlining two typical formation mechanisms of rural tourism clusters: “market spontaneity-government guidance-market regulation”and “imitation effect-innovation diffusion-iterative renewal”; (3) It proposes paths and countermeasures for the development of rural tourism agglomerations toward Chinese modernization. The conclusions expand the theoretical basis of rural tourism clusters and provide theoretical support and practical references for the integrated planning and innovative development of rural tourism clusters.

With the emergence of spatial alienation, segregation, and other non-equilibrium problems in tourism development, spatial justice has gradually received attention. Using the Web of Science and the CNKI database as data sources, this article reviews the academic history of spatial justice research in tourism in both domestic and foreign contexts, presents the development progress and research contents of this field using a chart visualization method, and reviews and proposes several research foresights and expectations. The findings are as follows. The history of introducing spatial justice into the field of tourism research is not yet long. It has gone through three stages: initial exploration, undulating development, and steady development. Research on tourism spatial justice has mainly focused on connotations, differentiated stakeholder demands, the phenomenon of spatial injustice, and the paths for realizing tourism spatial justice. Further in-depth research on its internal specific requirements and generative logic has yet to be conducted. Current research methods are mainly qualitative and lack exploratory validation and other quantitative research methods. Subsequent research should strengthen the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods and intensify empirical and confirmatory studies. The relationship between tourism spatial production, spatial justice, and spatial injustice problems should be further discussed to enhance the practical guidance of tourism spatial justice theory. The following research prospects are proposed. (1) Distinguishing between original and institutional issues in tourism spatial justice. (2) Besides social justice, tourism spatial justice should also consider multidimensional aspects, such as environmental, cultural, and economic dimensions. (3) In terms of intergenerational equity, protecting the survival resources of future generations while meeting contemporary needs should be emphasized. (4) Community participation, governance, and sustainable livelihoods are essential for implementing spatial justice in tourism. (5) Space governance and policy regulations are important measures for securing tourism spatial justice, but their comprehensive effects also need to be considered.