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Purpose: This study analyzes trends in wellness tourism research published in Chinese academic databases from 2016 to December 2023, aiming to understand the development of wellness tourism in China and to provide insights for research in both South Korea and China. Methods: To conduct this study, 295 papers related to wellness tourism were classified and analyzed by publication year, research area, research method, research topic, and keywords. Results: The research region included 102 papers from the western region (34.58%), 52 from the central region (17.63%), 47 from the eastern region (15.93%), and 19 from the northeastern region (6.44%). The research methods comprised 190 qualitative studies (64.41%), 56 quantitative studies (24.07%), and 49 mixed-method studies (11.53%). The research topics were the development/improvement of wellness tourism 110 papers(37.29%), resources/marketing 59 papers(20%), general topics 54 papers(18.31%), behavior/demand 33 papers(11.19%), economy 30 papers(10.17%), and professionals 9 papers(3.05%). The most frequent keywords were “forest” 69 times(39.3%), “industry convergence” 22 times(12.6%), and “rural revitalization” 11 times(6.3%). Conclusion: Research on wellness tourism in China has been actively conducted in the western region, with many qualitative studies, and a significant number of topics related to the develop ment and improvement of wellness tourism. In terms of publication years, research related to the eastern region has shown a rebound trend, and there has been an increasing trend in topics concerning the development/improvement of wellness tourism and the behavior/needs of wellness tourists. A significant number of keywords related to forests have been observed.
Yuan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.