EVALUATING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF FOREST HEALTH TOURISM: A CASE STUDY OF CHONGQING
Abstract
Amid population aging and rising health awareness, forest health tourism has driven the rapid development of forest health bases in China. While existing studies have assessed the suitability of forest health bases from the perspectives of the health market, health environment, and forest resources, the indicator systems remain insufficiently refined and largely neglect inter-dimensional coordination, thereby constraining their capacity to adequately reflect sustainable development potential(SDP). This study: (1) refines traditional suitability indicators and, based on the principle that development suitability and inter-dimensional coordination are equally important, constructs a SDP evaluation framework; (2) conducts an empirical investigation on 16 municipal-level and above bases in Chongqing and identifies several high-potential cases; and (3) employs grey relational analysis to show that High-SDP tiers are dominated by HE quality, Medium-SDP by HE-FR synergy, and Low-SDP by HM-HE interaction. The study provides both theoretical support and a practical tool for forest health base sustainable development.
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References
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