Theoretical connotation and research framework of deep integration of culture and tourism in Chinese-style modernization construction

Adhering to the principle of shaping tourism through culture and highlighting culture through tourism, we will promote the deep integration development of culture and tourism, providing clear direction for this development in the New Era. This study involved a systematic review of research on the integration of culture and tourism, and we summarized the conceptual connotations and research hotspots of this integration. The study findings revealed that: (1) Chinese-style modernization served as the value guide for promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism, which was an important path toward achieving Chinese-style modernization. The deep integration of culture and tourism leveraged and boosted Chinese-style modernization. A close internal logical relationship existed between them. (2) The deep integration of culture and tourism refered to the mutual intersection, integration, and optimization of cultural undertakings, cultural industries, and tourism at the resource, product, organizational, and technological levels. It involved innovating different types of tourism destination carriers in the common market. Through the process of resource integration to product integration, and product integration to industry integration, it continuously derived new formats, expanded the industrial scope, extended the industry chain, and shaped the value chain. This was a process of "1+1>2" wherein culture and tourism achieved broader, deeper, and higher levels of integrated development. The deep integration of culture and tourism was not a simple resource integration or "resource-product" integration but a comprehensive and deep "resource-product-industry" integration characterized by typical self-organization, adaptability, nonlinearity, and emergence. (3) In the context of Chinese-style modernization, focusing on research regarding the internal logic, evaluation, paths, mechanisms, and institutional supply of the deep integration of culture and tourism was important. By continuously deepening research content and innovating research themes, we could unleash the huge potential and strong vitality of the deep integration of culture and tourism, better promote the steady and long-term development of the tourism industry, and contribute to the realization of Chinese-style modernization through the power of culture and tourism.