Theory and practice cross-integration offers significant value for discipline advancement and academic progress. Since the 2000s, Chinese tourism research has achieved significant growth in both the quantity and quality of publications. Nevertheless, a lack of understanding on the ‘real problem’ means that a significant number of publications are repetitive reinterpretations of prior research. To undertake high-quality research, it is important to understand the dyadic (two directional) relationship between theory and practice, which is the derivation of theory from practice and application of theory to practice. Performing iterations of this process contributes to the identification of ‘the real problem’ which increases the rigor and quality of the research. This paper takes an autoethnography approach: by reflecting on my own progression in research and practice, the paper demonstrates how iteration of theory and practice contributes to theory building and sustainable tourism development in communities. The article concludes that the quality of tourism research can only be improved by iterations of the complete cyclical process from theory to practice and from practice back to theory.

Although the term “smart tourism” originated from western countries, it has “taken root and flourished” in China. Current understanding in domestic industry and academia not only reflects the reality of the development of smart tourism in China, but also encourages new research into its conceptualization and strategy. Based on the understanding and analysis of the original mainstream technology application theory, this paper proposes new ideas on the concept and connotations of smart tourism from the perspective of rational choice theory. It concludes that the core characteristic of smart tourism is that it encourages the tourism subject to make the most rational choice.

Sport tourism is a prominent new example of multi-disciplinary integration, whose conceptual system and subject attributes have lacked clear definition. Firstly, this study analyzes domestic and foreign academic perspectives on the concept and subject attributes of sport tourism, using the phenomenological suspension method from Husserl’s theory to analyze the logical starting points of sport and tourism as separate entities. Secondly, it proposes that the logical starting point of sport tourism’s basic conceptual system is “Tourism-Sport Activities”, using the deductive method to construct the core concepts of the word group, terminology system, and logic relationships diagram of sport tourism. Lastly, it explores and analyzes the subject category of sport tourism based on the dependency relationship of interdisciplinary naming, subordinate rules, and the discipline genus “family similarity”. Through synthesizing the results of this analysis, this study finds that there are more family similarities between sport tourism and tourism, thus sport tourism should belong to tourism subject property.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is closely bound up with the supply of quality tourism products, the quality of tourism experiences, and the sustainable development of tourism. The various crisis risks and pressures that CSR failure causes are transmitted through the supply chain. However, tourism CSR research lacks literature on thinking about the decision-making game process between enterprises, from the perspective of the tourism supply chain system. The lack of systematic optimization decision theory leads to the backward practice of tourism CSR. Breaking the boundary of thinking about CSR from a purely static enterprise perspective to place CSR within the framework of a tourism supply chain dynamic operation establishes a new and robust theoretical analysis path for tourism CSR research that promotes matching tourism CSR research and practice. Utilizing different power structures, this paper studies four models of tourism supply chain game decision-making: the Stackelberg game of scenic-spot leadership, the Stackelberg game of travel agency leadership, the Nash equilibrium game of scenic spot and travel agency, and the centralized decision-making model of complete cooperation in a two-level tourism supply chain, comprising a travel agency and a scenic spot considering CSR. Further, through the equilibrium decision comparative static analysis and the example simulation analysis, this paper found that tourism products’ wholesale price, sale price, and demand, the CSR commitment level of the scenic spot, the scenic-spot profit in a Nash equilibrium game, and the profits of the travel agency and the supply chain will increase. With increased CSR effect, the profit of the scenic spot under the Nash equilibrium game presents a dynamic change from increase to decrease as the CSR effect. The CSR commitment level of the scenic spot is highest under the centralized decision-making model, and minimal in the scenic-spot leadership model. When the CSR effect factor exceeds a critical value, the travel agency will respond to scenic spot’s fairness concerns. Hence, the wholesale price of products under the leadership of the travel agency will be higher than under the leadership of the scenic spot. Centralized decision-making is better than decentralized decision-making, and under decentralized decision-making, the optimal profit of the tourism supply chain under scenic-spot leadership is the lowest. That is, the optimal profit of the tourism supply chain under travel-agency leadership and the balance of power on both sides is better than under scenic spots. Therefore, when forming a centralized decision with full cooperation is impossible, having the travel agency in a leading position is most beneficial. Strong CSR effect is also most beneficial for the tourism supply chain system. However, from the perspective of its own profits, the scenic spot’s leading position is not necessarily the most advantageous, and the size of the CSR effect should determine that. Through modeling optimization research, tourism CSR and channel power are both introduced into the decision-making model of the tourism supply chain for the first time. This develops the research perspective and method of tourism CSR and, at the same time, provides some decision support for CSR practice on the tourism supply side, under different power structures.

Knowledge transfer is a critical topic in tourism research: it has the potential to boost high-quality development in the tourism sector and increase the positive effect of knowledge in tourism development. This literature review is based on 85 articles on knowledge transfer published in leading tourism journals from 2000 to 2019. Major issues examined included the definition of knowledge transfer, knowledge sources, transfer channels, influencing factors, and consequent effects. Based on the literature review, a research framework of knowledge transfer was proposed, which addresses both the current situation and trend of tourism development to propose future research avenues.