Study of the evolving relationship between tourism development and cultural heritage landmarks in the eight Chengyang scenic villages in China

• The ecological land area decreased significantly between 2006 and 2021. • Cultural viewing land within living areas had the highest growth. • Landscaped water areas exhibited a growth trend of 3.33 % over 15 years. • Agricultural and tourism land dynamics reversed, fluctuating until 2021. • New cultural sites were primarily converted from production and ecological land. Traditional village tourism significantly shapes the dynamic interaction between human-land relations and contributes to the evolution of three key land uses: ecological, production, and living. It is worthwhile to study the relationship between tourism and land use evolution, both theoretically and practically. Chengyang Eight Villages Scenic Area (CYEVSA) in China offers an extraordinary cultural heritage experience, which is an ideal venue for such investigations. We examined quantitative information regarding the tourism industry and the evolution of ecological, production, and living land uses based on satellite remote sensing data obtained from CYEVSA in 2006, 2015, and 2021. This analysis focused on two primary aspects: land type area and dynamics. Using both the global Moran index and the local Moran index, we investigated the evolutionary characteristics of these three land uses. Our analysis revealed a consistent growth trend in the tourism industry, as well as the proportion of production and living land usage. Notably, tourism has a slight negative impact on ecological land use. Additionally, the tourism industry triggers discernible land use conversions within the production and living land use categories. Production and living activities encroached observably on ecological land. Furthermore, while the tourism industry mitigated the clustering of these land use types and drove land use conversion, it also exhibited spatial heterogeneity. The tourism industry needs to explore and enhance its resources within CYEVSA, diversify its formats, and broaden its reach gradually to encompass all eight villages. Through strategic CYEVSA planning, it is crucial to designate necessary development uses for tourism, proactively plan and target land reserve development for the tourism industry and leverage the positive impact of tourism in facilitating the conversion of these three land uses. Our research advances land use optimization for traditional village tourism, including an exploration of how tourism development interacts with land uses.