From drivers to technology empowerment: Decoding the influencing factors of Yellow River tourists' pro-environmental behaviors

Based on the methodology of constructivist grounded theory, this paper takes the typical tourist areas of the Yellow River Basin as the research field, and systematically explores the influence mechanism of tourists' pro-environmental behavior through three-level coding (open coding, spindle coding, and selective coding). The study identified six core influencing factors and constructed a theoretical model of “two-wheel drive” co-evolution, and the main findings are as follows: (1) Construct a five-dimensional tourism environmental behavior system (TEBS), in which individual intrinsic (psychological cognition and emotional connection), social context (group norms and cultural guidance), environmental design (spatial function and ecological perception), institutional policy (incentive and constraint and governance effectiveness), and special situation (crisis event and spatio-temporal limitation) constitute the basic dimensions; Special situations are included in the system as an independent dimension, which fully meets the needs of economic and social transformation in the new era. (2) Innovatively reveal the intermediary mechanism of technology empowerment: on the one hand, TEBS provides channels and space for technology empowerment through the construction of digital infrastructure and the expansion of intelligent technology application scenarios (thrust effect); On the other hand, the iterative upgrading of reverse driving technologies such as tourists' environmental behavior data feedback and intelligent management needs (pulling effect) has formed a closed-loop system of dynamic adaptation of “demand-supply”. By constructing a co-evolution model of TEBS and technology empowerment, this paper provides a new theoretical explanation framework and practical optimization path for the high-quality development of ecological protection of the Yellow River.