| Criteria | Our cross-destination study | Single-destination study by Xie and Gu ( |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | National (406 “AAAAA”-rated scenic areas in China, including the ancient city of Pingyao) | Local (single destination: the ancient city of Pingyao) |
| Data | Geospatial big data (POIs, buildings, land cover, etc.) | Maps, oral history, archival research, government plans |
| Scope | Comparative and quantitative analysis across various tourism destinations | In-depth qualitative and historical investigations |
| Objective | Identify generalizable morphological patterns and drivers of tourism | Understand historical morphological transformation and tourism’s role in shaping a tourism destination |
| Impact | Useful for high-level tourism planning and benchmarking, but may lack local specificity; glosses over local idiosyncrasies | Valuable for fine destination-level tourism planning, but research findings may face generalizability challenges |
