Forest Wellness Tourism Development Strategies Using SWOT, QSPM, and AHP: A Case Study of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest in China

Abstract

Forests drive tourism growth in China, offering ecologic and economic benefits over urbanization trends. Wellness tourism, aligned with UN goals, thrives in forest settings, though challenges remain, particularly in the underinvested forest regions of Western China. This study aims to identify and rank the forest wellness tourism industry development strategies for Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park in China. The SWOT method was used to construct the strategy, while the AHP method and QSPM matrix were used to rank the selected strategies. The data used in the analysis were the survey questionnaire data of 356 individuals to construct the model to identify the strategies, and the interview data of 23 experts to rate the strategies using the Delphi method. The effectiveness of eight internal and seven external factors for forest wellness tourism was evaluated. The survey results highlight the most significant advantages of the Chongqing Tea Mountains and Bamboo Forest as being its “beautiful natural and unique scenery”, and its most significant shortcomings as its “insufficient supporting facilities and weak infrastructure”. The QSPM matrix analysis reveals that the ‘offensive strategy’ is the best. The results also emphasize the importance of “Protecting the diverse tourism resources to keep the market prospect and promote wellness industry development” in the study areas. Therefore, the potential of developing forest wellness tourism in this area should be considered and included in the agenda of policy makers to strengthen the development of forest wellness tourism, improve the economic status of the tourism of the jurisdiction, and create employment opportunities in tourism-related businesses.

1. Introduction

Since forests are the natural carrier of ecological resources and the spatial carrier of economic activities, forests’ tourism attractions have economic, social, and ecological benefits [1]. Additionally, affected by the accelerated pace of urbanization, people have become increasingly aware of the importance of healthy food and lifestyles [2]. People who have been affected by daily work pressure, frustration due to traffic jams, difficulties due to financial challenges, marital disputes, and altercations, as well as family-related problems, primarily pursue healthy food and lifestyle [3]. In relation to this notion, in China, “returning to nature” has become the focus among forest tourists [4], and a large number of forest trails and forest parks have emerged.

Tourism can promote public’s self-care and realization of self-worth. The United Nations World Tourism Organization proposes tourism to improve personal well-being as one of the development goals. In recent years, tourism scholars began to advocate finding happiness and fulfillment in tourism practices to achieve changes in consciousness and values. At the same time, it is a facilitator of well-being, positive experiences, and spiritual awareness in slow-paced travel [5] (p. 8). The Global Wellness Summit proposed that short-term restorative travel to areas rich in ecological resources has become a leading wellness trend [6]. The forest is the best place for forest therapy [7], providing opportunities for the development of the wellness industry. For example, constructing forest trails, which increases “calm space” for the public [8], enables tourists to recuperate for extended periods while breathing in the forest air.

Wellness tourism is an activity that uses the natural, humanistic, and cultural environment to achieve the purpose of viewing, leisure, sports, and entertainment [9]. It enables people to achieve a natural, harmonious mind, body, and soul [10]. Wellness tourism has developed rapidly in recent years, transforming consumer behavior through the availability of extended engaged services in further tourism behavior experiences [11]. Moreover, China is in the top twenty destination markets worldwide in 2020 [12]. Wellness tourism creates employment opportunities in tourism and its related sectors, such as agriculture, forestry, and services. Therefore, it can bring considerable advantages to tourist destinations, and its economic impact is an essential consideration in urban planning and development.

Western China occupies 40% of the total forest park area in the country; however, its total investment only reaches 25% [13]. The imbalance of resources and inputs leads to significant differences in service quality, which poses challenges to constructing forest park infrastructure in the western region. Likewise, tourists always seek products, services, and experiences to improve their well-being when traveling [14,15]. Therefore, it is imperative to build wellness tourism plans in the western cities of China.

The main contents of this paper are as follows: Section 2 introduces the literature review of forest tourism, wellness tourism, forest wellness tourism, and strategic planning. Section 3 explains the research methods and materials used in the study in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. Section 4 presents the analytical path and results. Section 5 discusses the implications of the research findings. Finally, Section 6 gives the research conclusions.

2. Literature Review

Many studies have demonstrated that demographic changes are directly related to regional economic, healthcare, and welfare conditions [1]. With its population, the forest has unique geographical advantages for developing tourism, which can provide a unique tourism experience and services. Tourism development should be regarded as a growth opportunity to create wealth [16].

2.1. Forest Tourism

Many areas rich in forestry resources seek to integrate development with tourism to promote the protection and restoration of ecological resources, popular science research and education, and revitalize the regional economy [17]. Forest wellness tourism is a combination of forest ecosystem services and wellness tourism products. Therefore, forest tourism destinations can match wellness services with tourism resources to create social values [18]. For example, forest bathing (“shinrin-yoku”), a natural treatment approach to alternative medicine, ecotherapy, forest health, and forest therapy, was pioneered by Japanese researchers [19].

Forest bathing is a wellness tourism service that advocates an immersive forest experience, allowing tourists to reconnect with the land, activate the senses, and create emotional value in an ecological and natural environment [20]. It is of a more mainstream consciousness and one of the leading global wellness and spa trends [6]. Currently, the American Association for Nature and Forest Therapy Guidelines and Programs [21] and the Japanese International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine [22] lead research in the field of forest therapy. Germany, Scotland, China, and other countries have developed forest bathing as a part of public health plans. The American Association proposed that forest bathing requires mindful awareness, such as body awareness, proprioception, body radar, or imaginal communication. The tour guide needs to help tourists slow down their pace and shift their attention to the feeling of the forest [21].

A successful example of the development of forest bathing in Serbia lies in the education and certification of tour guides [23], creating a diversification of tourism products in the bright forest areas of the Balkans [24]. For example, Serbian forest bathing products incorporate the healing landscape elements of a forest edge pasture with the relaxing sound of sheep bells, ’wollala’ for wellness (scrubs with sheep wool) or collecting medieval herbs and integrating them with the local traditional culture to develop sustainable tourism experiences, this approach further attempts to integrate forest bathing into national tourism development strategies by encouraging local communities to participate in creating and delivering forest-based wellbeing experiences. Many scholars have provided valuable insights into the physiological effects of forest bathing through quantitative research. These studies were mainly published on the environment and public health, but more attempts have yet to be made to extend the research into the tourism field. A notable exception is the work of [20,25], which illustrates the potential of forest bathing to promote tourism development by providing opportunities for relaxation [26] and proposes service innovation that combines forest tourism and wellness tourism from the perspective of customers participating in forest bathing [20].

2.2. Wellness Tourism

At present, scholars have different concepts of wellness tourism, and the literature lacks a consistent understanding of the definition of wellness tourism. [25]. Wellness tourism refers to activities that enable people to achieve a natural and harmonious state of body, mind, and spirit through various means, such as beauty and fitness, nutritious meals, self-cultivation, and environmental care [27]. Some scholars conceptualized wellness tourism into three dimensions: health, wellness, and elderly care. The health dimension includes states such as health, sub-health, and clinical health. Healthcare is committed to returning people to a good state of health to enhance the freedom of life. The dimension of wellness includes three levels: body, mind, and spirit. Wellness should include the comprehensive care of body, mind, and spirit to enhance the abundance of life. The dimension of elderly care includes different stages of life, such as pregnancy, infancy, being teenaged, young, middle, and aged. Healthcare should maintain the entire life cycle, focusing on the length of life and paying attention to the quality of life [28]. The primary way to maintain or improve tourists’ health through wellness tourism destinations is to provide a good and warm natural environment and specific cultural experiences [29,30,31].

Wellness tourism has developed rapidly worldwide because tourist destinations actively respond to tourists’ diverse needs for service quality [32,33,34]. For example, scenic spots provide wellness services [35,36,37], beach resorts develop wellness tourism and promote small business entrepreneurship [38,39], healthcare centers provide sustainable services, etc. [40]. The characteristics and potential of the wellness tourism industry development strategy have received much attention from scholars [36,41,42,43,44,45], and governments, such as China, have formulated industry standards for a series of wellness tourism bases [27,46].

China’s Demonstration Destination of Health and Wellness Tourism (LB/T051-2016) is the primary reference document for constructing wellness tourism bases in China [27]. It defines the core area and supporting areas of wellness tourism. It puts forward basic requirements for the necessary conditions, environment, economic level, barrier-free facilities, and tourism services for the wellness tourism base. It also puts forward specific requirements for the resources and environment, products and services, service quality of the wellness tourism core area, and the tourism reception service facilities, public services, guide sign services, safety and security services, convenience services, education and publicity, and the environmental sanitation in the supporting area.

2.3. Forest Wellness Tourism

From the tourism supply-side perspective, Nordic tourism scholars have contributed to forest wellness tourism [47,48]. For example, based on a forest’s resources, it provides tourists with a pleasant, comfortable, and luxurious consumable service experience and achieves healing functions through the immersive forest environment and healing soundscape [49]. Providing a quiet, slow-paced forest environment can effectively relieve the stress of busy urban life [48]. Some scholars integrate the literature on destination branding concepts with research on forest wellness tourism destination branding planning and disaster mitigation to examine potential gaps and future research directions in this field and discuss successful cases in Indonesia, especially in bamboo forest resources [50]. The diverse needs of forest wellness tourism tourists have also attracted the attention of Chinese scholars [51,52,53], demonstrated the importance of forest wellness tourism [54], and proposed the critical role of the government and tourism enterprises in development [55]. Despite the growing number of studies regarding tourism consumption psychology, decision-making, and the balance of supply and demand, more research needs to be conducted on strategic planning in the forest wellness tourism industry.

2.4. Strategic Planning

Strategic planning determines the mission, significant objectives, strategies, and policies that govern the acquisition and allocation of resources to achieve organizational aims [56]. It can improve the enterprise’s performance and indirectly improve performance by increasing the effectiveness of human resources [57,58]. Tourism’s strategic planning is complex and should be viewed as an ongoing and adaptive process. Tourism industry-related policies and planning frameworks should adapt to changes in the external environment [59]. Therefore, strategic planning tools help tourist destinations analyze resources and environmental conditions effectively and plan based on the input–process–output principle [60].

The SWOT analysis is one of the most familiar strategic planning tools that analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It aims to evaluate enterprises’ competitive strategic planning by analyzing the organization’s specific environment, and is often used in forest tourism research [61,62] and wellness tourism research [33]. In the research process of tourism’s strategic planning, SWOT is often analyzed in combination with the TOWS matrix [18,31,63], which uses strengths to convert criteria into opportunities (so), uses strengths to avoid threats (st), attempts to exploit opportunities by overcoming weaknesses (wo), and takes action to minimize weaknesses and avoid threats (wt). Some scholars try to conduct a comprehensive analysis using SWOT-AHP, which combines SWOT with the analytical hierarchy process [64,65,66,67]. Some other scholars try to analyze using SWOT-QSPM, which combines SWOT with the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix [68]. The research content involves sustainable development strategies for the tourism environment [69,70,71,72], the decision-making of rural tourism entrepreneurship [66], sustained tourism protection [73], and the tourism potential of the region, etc. [74]. These combinations embody the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, which can effectively solve the problem of the interference between factors in the decision-making process [75]. In particular, the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) method can rank by exchanging different indicators [76].

However, some scholars have begun to try further new MADM method combinations, such as the SWOT-TOWS-ANP methods, to analyze the best strategies for ship recycling facilities to protect the ecological environment [77] and identify alternative Maritime Silk Road strategies that can be implemented in ports in the eastern Aegean region [78]. Although these studies explore alternative strategies contributing to destination development, these studies do not view forest tourism as a guided, structured activity. To date, the study by Fan is the only one that tries to use the SWOT-AHP-QSPM method to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the development strategies within the forest tourism context, which plays the critical role of expert judgment in strategic decision-making. There is still room to apply MADM methods to the study of wellness tourism [79].

Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest has rich natural landscapes and is a national forest park in China. However, the forest parks featuring tea and bamboo reflect the ecological and environmental value of the Jishan Mountains. Still, they have yet to show a unique position in the national tourism economy. To develop forest wellness tourism, there is a need to adopt the MADM method, such as the SWOT-AHP-QSPM method, to comprehensively analyze environmental conditions and formulate potential strategic plans based on the sustainable development vision. Through the participation of tourism industry stakeholders and expert judgment, the analysis of the sustainable development strategy of Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest is likely to promote the area to become a vital wellness tourism destination in Southwest China, providing benefits to the regional economy, higher vocational education, and employment, and contribute to the development of related industries. Therefore, we combine the SWOT matrix to analyze Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest’s tourism resources’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and formulate strategies. Based on the SWOT matrix analysis results, the QSPM matrix and AHP technology rank the selected strategies. Considering the region’s potential, it is crucial to formulate such an execution strategy to promote the development of Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest.

Therefore, this study has the following two purposes: First, identify the internal and external variables that influence the development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. Second, based on the critical factors of forest wellness tourism, the QSPM matrix and AHP method will rank strategic initiatives. To achieve the above goals, the research questions of this paper are as follows: What are the best strategies for developing forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park, and what is the priority of these strategies?

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. The Study Area

Chongqing City aims to build a national forest wellness resort (base) and proposes to strive to build 100 forest wellness bases by 2025, serving 50 million people annually [80]. Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest, named for its rich symbiosis of tea and bamboo resources, is like an ocean. It is located to the west of Chongqing City, China (Figure 1a), under the jurisdiction of the Jishan Mountains anticline in Yongchuan District (Figure 1b). It is a national forest park in China. The total area of Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park is 9979 hectares (Figure 2a). The vegetation type is subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, with a forest coverage rate of 97% (Figure 2b–d). Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest is a national wildlife protection base.

There are the following outstanding problems in developing forest wellness tourism in Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest:

First, tea and bamboo specialty tourism products need to be developed. Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest have built a tea and bamboo products street to attract residents to sell tea and bamboo products, such as tea, tea wine, bamboo shoots, bamboo fungus, bamboo products, etc. More special healthy food therapy products or comprehensive services must be developed for wellness tourism.

Second, wellness tourism service personnel need to be trained. To stimulate local employment, most of the Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest service staff are middle-aged and older adults over 40. They sell products, provide hotel services, or start Homestay businesses. The service staff lack uniform clothing, standardized service terms, and skills, and lack an awareness of wellness tourism.

Third, the wellness tourism atmosphere is insufficiently created. Sichuan Province is one of the central provinces in China that has developed wellness tourism. Yongchuan District of Chongqing City borders Sichuan Province and has rich wellness tourism resources. However, the regional development goals are not clear enough for building forest wellness tourism.

3.2. Methods

The SWOT-AHP model conducts quantitative analysis according to the logical sequence of decomposition, comparison, judgment, and synthesis to determine the weight of each indicator and simplify complex decision-making issues. It includes establishing a hierarchical structure model from top to bottom according to the target layer, criterion layer, and indicator layer of each factor according to different attributes, constructing a judgment matrix based on the pairwise comparison of model indicators by relevant experts, and using the sum-product method or square root method based on the judgment matrix. We calculate using commonly used methods such as this method, use the characteristic root method to find the corresponding element weights, and then conduct a consistency test. Finally, total hierarchical sorting was performed to obtain the weight of each indicator relative to the overall goal [75,76]. Furthermore, QSPM uses quantitative assessment to evaluate the competitiveness and attractiveness of different strategies composed of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to facilitate strategic decision-makers in making optimal strategic choices. QSPM is usually a supplementary method to the evaluation of factors in the previous stage. It mainly scores each strategy based on the EFE matrix, IFE matrix, and SWOT matrix. The scoring results reveal the priority of various alternative strategies [67]. Therefore, the strategic choice for the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism is to combine SWOT-AHP analysis with QSPM to determine the optimal alternative for the development strategy obtained in the SWOT matrix.

3.2.1. Constructing a Judgment Matrix

A hierarchical structure model is constructed based on the SWOT analysis results to provide an indicator hierarchical framework for AHP analysis. On this basis, this study employs the expert consultation method to assign values to each criterion layer and the internal indicators of the criterion layer using the “pairwise comparison” method, evaluate the relative importance between indicators, and weigh the assignment of each indicator by all experts to obtain the average score [81]. Firstly, we set the index of the construction matrix to a_ij, and its value is obtained through the average ratio,

$$a_{ij}=a_i/a_j$$

(1)

In the formula, a_i is the average score of indicator i, and a_j is the average score of indicator j. The comparison result is transformed into pairwise comparison judgment matrix A.

$$A=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}\begin{array}{c}1\\ a_{21}\end{array} \begin{array}{c}{a}_{12}\\ 1\end{array}& \begin{array}{c}\cdots \\ \dots \end{array}& \begin{array}{c}{a}_{1n}\\ a_{2n}\end{array}\\ ⋮& \ddots & ⋮\\ \begin{array}{cc}{a}_{n1}& a_{n2}\end{array}& \cdots & 1\end{array}\right],$$

(2)

3.2.2. Solving the Judgment Matrix

This study uses the sum-product method to solve the judgment matrix. First, each column of the judgment matrix is normalized,

$${\overline{a}}_{ij}=a_{ij}/\sum _{k=1}^n{a}_{kj}$$

(3)

Secondly, we add the column-normalized judgment matrices by rows,

$${\overline{w}}_i=\sum _{j=1}^n{\overline{a}}_{ij}$$

(4)

$$\overline{w}={\left[\begin{array}{ccc}{\overline{w}}_1,& {\overline{w}}_2,& {\overline{w}}_3\end{array}, \begin{array}{ccc}{\overline{w}}_4,& {\overline{w}}_5,& {\overline{w}}_6\end{array}\right]}^{\mathrm{T}}$$

(5)

Then, we normalize the vector treatment.

$$w_i=\overline{w}/\sum _{j=1}^n{\overline{w}}_j$$

(6)

Finally, we calculate the maximum characteristic root λ_max of the judgment matrix, that is

$${\mathsf{\lambda }}_{\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{x}}=\sum _{i=1}^n\frac{{\left(AW\right)}_i}{{nW}_i}$$

(7)

In the formula, (AW)_i represents the i-th element of vector AW.

3.2.3. Consistency Test

Since calculation errors in the regularization process will subtly impact the consistency, we must test the consistency. To calculate the consistency index CI of the judgment matrix,

$$CI=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}{\mathsf{\lambda }}_{\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{x}}& -& n\end{array}\right)/\left(\begin{array}{ccc}n& -& 1\end{array}\right)$$

(8)

In the formula, λ_max is the most significant characteristic root, and n is the order of the judgment matrix. According to the assignment table of the consistency index RI of the judgment matrix, CR is calculated with the formula

$$CR=CI/RI$$

(9)

CR is the random consistency ratio of the judgment matrix, CI is the consiste(ncy index of the judgment matrix, and RI is the average random consistency index of the judgment matrix. If CR < 0.1, it means the consistency test is passed, and if CR > 0.1, it means that the matrix needs further modification until satisfactory consistency is achieved.

3.2.4. Determining the Weight

Based on the judgment matrix that passed the consistency test, the importance of each layer’s indicators relative to the previous layer’s indicators is obtained. Then, the weight of each criterion layer is combined with the weight of the internal indicators of the criterion layer to obtain the priority scores of all indicators and the hierarchical consistency check of the overall ranking.

3.2.5. Four-Quadrant Coordinate Method

The four-quadrant coordinate method determined the strategic goals for the forest wellness tourism sustainable development of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. The development strategy and intensity are determined mainly by calculating the center of gravity coordinates of the strategic map and the azimuth angle and intensity coefficient of the center of gravity point. Then, the sustainable development path of forest wellness is discussed. We analyze the weight results using the SWOT-AHP model to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The total strength of advantages is

$$S=\sum s_i/n_s$$

(10)

the overall disadvantage is

$$W=\sum w_i/n_w$$

(11)

the total opportunity advantage is

$$O=\sum O_i/n_o$$

(12)

and the total threat is

$$T=\sum T_i/n_t$$

(13)

In the formula, n_s, n_w, n_o, and n_t represent the total number of advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and threats. S_i, W_i, O_i, and T_i represent each factor’s i-th strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Secondly, the four variables of the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and threats are used as semi-axes to establish a four-quadrant coordinate system. The total strength of advantages, the strength of total weaknesses, the strength of total opportunities, and the strength of total threats are positioned as point coordinates. The connecting lines form a strategic quadrilateral, and based on this, the strategic center of gravity coordinates of the strategic quadrilateral, the strategic azimuth angle, and the strategy’s positive intensity, negative intensity, and intensity coefficient are calculated. Finally, the specific strategic plan and its intensity are determined. The strategic focus coordinates are

$$P(x,y)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\sum x_i/4,& \sum y_i/4\end{array}\right)$$

(14)

the strategic azimuth is

$$\theta =arc\tan \left(y/x\right)\left(0\le \theta \le 2\pi \right)$$

(15)

the strategic positive intensity is

$$U=S\times O$$

(16)

the strategic negative intensity is

$$V=W\times T$$

(17)

and the strategic intensity coefficient is

$$\mathsf{\rho }=U/\left(U+V\right)$$

(18)

3.2.6. QSPM Analysis Method

The establishment of QSPM for the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing City is divided into five steps. Step 1, based on the IFE matrix and EFE matrix information, analyzes the internal superior resources, critical external opportunities, and challenge factors and their weights for Chongqing City in the second left column of the QSPM. Step 2, based on the alternative strategies derived from the SWOT matrix of the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing City, places these strategies in the top row of the QSPM model table. Step 3, the numerical value represents the attractiveness score of the strategy (attractiveness scores (ASs)). Strategic attractiveness scores use expert scoring methods to express the relative attractiveness of each factor to each model. The rating range and standard of attractiveness are 1 to 4, respectively, representing the degree of attractiveness, referring to factors as specifically unattractive (1 point), particular attractive (2 points), reasonably attractive (3 points), and very attractive (4 points). Step 4, we calculate the total attractiveness scores (TASs). The TAS equals the weight of the internal advantageous resources and external development opportunities and the challenges that influence sustainable development multiplied by the attractiveness score. The total attractiveness score represents the intensity of strategic attractiveness. Step 5 calculates the total attractiveness scores (STASs), indicating the results of the strategic selection and the combined attractiveness calculation ranking.

3.3. Model Construction

Combined with China’s Demonstration, the destination of health and wellness tourism (LB/T051-2016) [27] and other forest wellness tourism destination experiences, following scientific, systematic, practical, and dynamic principles of sustainability, an index system of the sustainable development factors of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park was constructed. Taking the indicator system in

Table 1. The index system of sustainable development factors.

Target Layer	Criterion Layer	Indicator Layer
Sustainable development of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park	Strength (S)	S1. Rich biological resources
		S2. Excellent climate and environment
		S3. Diverse tourism resources
		S4. Unique traffic location
		S5. Colorful national culture
		S6. Good policy environment
		S7. Diverse local characteristics
		S8. Stable customer market
	Weakness (W)	W1. Shortage of professional talents
		W2. Limited development level
		W3. Poor infrastructure
		W4. Backward operating mechanism
		W5. Insufficient publicity
		W6. Insufficient industrial integration
		W7. Low concept awareness
		W8. Lack of technical support
	Opportunity (O)	O1. Strong policy support
		O2. Broad market prospect
		O3. Wellness industry development
		O4. Industry transformation and upgrading
		O5. Consumption concept changes
	Threat (T)	T1. Peripheral competitive pressure
		T2. Technology introduction difficulties
		T3. Investment and financing difficulties
		T4. Diverse travel needs
		T5. Ecological protection

as the main content, the influence degree of each indicator in the questionnaire, such as the advantage factor, is assigned. The five levels are labelled no advantage, slight advantage, average advantage, considerable advantage, and huge advantage.

Four hundred evaluation forms were carried out in 2023, including tourists, service personnel, and scholars. The tourist evaluation form is a random sampling survey, and the evaluation form is distributed to tourists at product sales points. The service personnel are mainly community residents, and the survey is carried out using a snowball method. The first interviewee recommended two non-family members, and the authors conducted visits in the jurisdiction. Scholars in ecology, tourism, forestry, agriculture, and other related fields mainly use telephone communication and on-site interviews to research those who have experienced Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest. Three hundred fifty-six valid evaluation forms were collected, including 267 from tourists, 68 from service staff, and 21 from scholars. Based on the survey results, we screened out the main strategic factors affecting the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism.

The corresponding scores are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 points. Finally, based on the questionnaire survey results, the average score of each indicator is calculated, and the leading indicators are determined according to the score in

Table 2. Evaluation of index system for sustainable development factors.

Indicator N.	Average Score	Main Indicator	Indicator N.	Average Score	Main Indicator
S1	3.94	Yes	W1	3.79	Yes
S2	3.81	Yes	W2	2.69	No
S3	3.68	Yes	W3	3.59	Yes
S4	4.0.4	Yes	W4	3.87	Yes
S5	2.04	No	W5	3.49	Yes
S6	2.93	No	W6	2.47	No
S7	2.15	No	W7	2.80	No
S8	2.86	No	W8	2.32	No
O1	3.81	Yes	T1	4.20	Yes
O2	3.68	Yes	T2	2.49	No
O3	3.55	Yes	T3	4.03	Yes
O4	2.58	No	T4	3.87	Yes
O5	3.94	Yes	T5	2.64	No

.

4. Results

4.1. SWOT Factor Analysis

Based on the finalized leading indicators, a SWOT analysis model was constructed, as shown in

Table 3. SWOT analysis model.

Strength (S)	Weakness (W)
Rich biological resources S1	Shortage of professional talents W1
Excellent climate and environment S2	Poor infrastructure W3
Diverse tourism resources S3	Backward operating mechanism W4
Unique traffic location S4	Insufficient publicity W5
Opportunity (O)	Threat (T)
Strong policy support O1	Peripheral competitive pressure T1
Broad market prospect O2	Investment and financing difficulties T3
Wellness industry development O3	Diverse travel needs T4.
Consumption concept changes O5

, and its indicators were qualitatively analyzed.

4.1.1. Strength

Rich biological resources. Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Forest Park is at the Jishan Mountains’ anticline. The mountain is narrow and long, shaped like a soaring dragon. The highest peak, Bodaoling, is 1025 m above sea level, and the lowest point, Luojiaheba, is 227 m above sea level. The geological structure belongs to the Yongchuan broom-shaped fold bundle of the East Sichuan fold belt, the third subsidence zone of the Neocathaysian system. Cold sandy yellow soil is widely spread on the mountain, and the surface is primarily light gray or gray limestone. The top of the mountain is gentle, and the soil is deep, suitable for the growth of tea trees and bamboo. The vegetation type of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park is subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest. The forest coverage rate in the scenic area is 97%. The top of the mountain consists of sparse shrubs and grass meadows. There are more than 30 species of tea trees in the scenic area, which are rich in famous teas such as “Yongchuan Xiuya”, “Yudu Hao Tea”, and “Yuzhou Maofeng”. It is the main producing area of nan bamboo, small path bamboo, timber forest, philodendron, gingko, zhennan, yew, and metasequoia in Western China, as well as macaques, black bears, yellow-throated martens, and giant civets, small civets, otters, golden cats, and other rare animals. There are 39 species of birds in 23 families, 16 species of mammals in 9 families, 258 species of insects, and more than 30 species of butterflies.

Excellent climate and environment. Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park are in a humid subtropical climate zone with a mild climate, four distinct seasons, abundant rainfall throughout the year, a long frost-free period, little sunshine, and high humidity. The average annual temperature is 14 degrees Celsius, the average annual snow cover is one week, the average annual rainfall is 1042.2 mm, the average sunshine is 1298.5 h, and the average annual frost-free period is 317 days. The atmospheric environment in the park reaches China’s national standard, with an oxygen ion content of 30,000 to 50,000 per cubic centimeter. The average annual air quality rate reaches 97.6%. It is an ideal natural oxygen bar and meets the environmental requirements for constructing a forest wellness tourism base.

Diverse tourism resources. The National Forest Park has long focused on developing forest tourism, including that of Bodaoling, the highest peak in Western Chongqing, historical monuments such as the Zhu De Tea House and Tianzi Palace ruins, and the filming location for the House of Flying Daggers movie. There are six A-level scenic spots in Yongchuan District, including groupings of three A-level scenic spots and two A-level scenic spots, initially forming a regional cluster of high-quality A-level scenic spots (

Table 4. List of A-level tourist attractions in Yongchuan District.

Scenic Spot Name	Quality Level	Scenic Spot Type	Opening Time
Chongqing LocalJoy Resort Theme Park	AAAA	Animal/theme amusement park	Every day 9:00–17:30
Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest	AAAA	Forest/Grassland	Every day 9:00–17:30
Chongqing Stalagmite Mountain Scenic Area	AAAA	Natural scenery	Every day 9:00–17:30
Chongqing Yongchuan Taohuayuan Tourist Resort	AAA	Leisure vacation	Every day 9:00–17:30
Chongqing Yongchuan Songgai Ancient Town	AAA	Characteristic neighborhood	Every day 9:00–17:30
Chongqing Yongchuan Museum	AAA	Cultural Museum	9:00–17:30 (Closed every Monday)

).

Unique traffic location. Chongqing is a transportation hub and trading port in Southwest China. It can be connected to the Wuhan urban agglomeration to the east and the Nanning, Guiyang, and Kunming economic zones through the Southwest Seaway to the south. In terms of expressways, three expressways will be completed and opened to traffic in 2024. Construction of the Yongchuan–Zigong and Yongchuan–Dazu Expressways (Chongqing Section) has started. The Construction of the Chongqing Central City-to-Yongchuan Express Logistics Channel and the Yongchuan City-to-Gangqiao Express Logistics Channel has started.

Regarding railways, the Yongchuan section of the Chongqing–Kunming high-speed railway will open to traffic in 2025. The urban railway line from the central city to Yongchuan is being planned. Six projects, including the Chongqing–Zigong (Leshan) intercity railway, the Chongqing–Bijie intercity railway, the second railway ring line, the Chengdu–Chongqing railway capacity expansion of the Yongchuan section, the Chongqing–Yibin railway, and the Chongqing–Luyi intercity railway, have been included in the 2035 mid-to-long-term plan. Regarding air and shipping channels, the second airport planned to be built in Chongqing is only more than 10 km from the central city of Yongchuan. Port of Songgai in Yongchuan District is located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River at the southernmost tip of Yongchuan District and has now opened direct international shipping.

4.1.2. Weakness

Shortage of professional talents. Forest wellness is a diversified industry integrating rehabilitation, ecology, medicine, and healthcare. It requires comprehensive talents integrating management and technology, such as forest wellness practitioners, forest wellness technicians, and forest commentators. However, due to the limited economy in the tourism industry, it can be challenging to introduce talents from outside. At the same time, the personnel in the region lack standard technical training, and there is a shortage of professional and technical personnel.

The infrastructure is backward. Compared with similar tourist attractions in other places, its infrastructure construction is still lagging, and it is challenging to meet the expanding market demand. This was mainly highlighted in wellness facilities, transportation infrastructure, and accommodation facilities. The Yongchuan district can still provide conventional medical and wellness facilities, but there are problems, such as limited quantities and insufficient technology. A three-dimensional transportation network with highways, railways, aviation, and water transportation as the core within the territory has initially taken shape. However, the density and mileage of highways make it challenging to meet the needs of tourists for “fast travel and slow travel”. Accommodation facilities are limited and insufficient, making it hard to find accommodation during holidays.

The operating mechanism is backward. According to an analysis of the relevant literature on the current development status of forest wellness tourism, although Yongchuan’s publicity has used technologies such as the internet and new media, the promotion form lacks multi-channel and multi-perspective publicity methods compared with those of Chengdu, Zhangjiajie, and other regions. It uses internet technology to attract tourists, mainly from surrounding areas.

There is insufficient publicity. Forest wellness tourism relies on forests to effectively integrate the tourism and healthcare industries. It is necessary to find their common points, combined with the actual needs of tourists, to create unique tourism health projects. However, judging from the current development status of the Yongchuan forest wellness tourism industry, the connection between the tourism industry and the wellness industry is not close enough. The two are relatively independent, have limited integration, and lack outstanding industrial characteristics.

4.1.3. Opportunity

There is strong policy support. The State Forestry and Grassland Administration issued the “Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Forest Recreation Industry”. The opinions pointed out that the development of the forest wellness industry must adhere to the five basic principles of ecological optimization, adapting measures to local conditions, scientific development, innovation leadership, and market leadership. They clarified the main tasks of vigorously developing the forest wellness industry. At the local level, the Yongchuan district’s government issued the Rural Tourism Development Plan (2020–2030), which focused on creating forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park.

The market prospect is broad. The population’s aging and severe environmental pollution problems have intensified people’s medical and healthcare demands. People’s health awareness continues to improve, and the wellness tourism industry is booming. As a tourist city in Chongqing, Yongchuan district’s tourist arrivals and income have increased in the past ten years. According to the recent years “Yongchuan District Statistical Yearbook”, tourist reception and income have steadily grown.

Tourism industry transformation and upgrading are occurring. The traditional sightseeing model of simply enjoying the scenery cannot meet the needs of tourists at this stage. Tourists prefer experiential, leisure, and wellness tourism. Wellness tourism is quality tourism that integrates sports, leisure, healthcare, and elderly care. It is the key to the transformation and development of tourism under the new standard development. The Yong Chuan district can use its environmental, selenium-rich environment, and traditional Chinese medicine advantages to create more distinctive wellness tourism products and promote the transformation and upgrading of the regional wellness tourism industry.

There are changes in consumption concepts occurring. Price is one of the factors consumers consider when choosing travel products. However, when tourists make travel consumption decisions, their inner preferences and needs are far more important than the impact of price.

4.1.4. Threat

There is peripheral competitive pressure. The unique geographical structure gives Chongqing rich forest wellness resources. There are 27 national forest parks in Chongqing, and they have enormous potential to develop the forest wellness industry. Secondly, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and other places have significantly better human and natural resources than Chongqing. Guizhou has completed preparing their forest wellness plan and has established over 100 forest wellness bases. Many places already have specific forest brand effects. Sichuan Province promulgated the “Sichuan Forest Wellness and Nutrition Foundation” and “Land Construction Standards” and built the first forest wellness e-commerce platform. In addition, Chengdu City in Sichuan Province is a famous tourist city in China, and its infrastructure, talent training, and market demand far exceed that of Chongqing City.

There are investment and financing difficulties. Disadvantages such as its weak infrastructure, lack of professional talents, and backward publicity mechanisms have resulted in its low visibility, weak appeal, and limited customer base. At the same time, the development of forest wellness tourism projects is an industry with a long cycle, weak results, and slow returns. Coupled with numerous uncertain factors, its investment and financing are more complex than those in other regions with muscular economic strength.

It has diverse tourism needs. The diverse demand for wellness tourism has brought market opportunities to the forest wellness tourism industry. However, as the demand for wellness is getting higher and higher, traditional and straightforward sightseeing-style tourism can no longer meet the needs of tourists. It has natural physiological and medical functions. Forest wellness tourism caters more to the needs of the public, allowing people to experience the joy of life and achieve the purpose of education and self-cultivation. It is necessary to segment the tourism market according to wellness needs, improve existing wellness tourism projects, and meet the needs of different consumer groups.

Based on the SWOT analysis of the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest, it is clear that the current stage of developing forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest has its internal advantages and disadvantages, as well as opportunities and threats from the outside. It is a complex situation in which advantages and disadvantages coexist, and opportunities and threats coexist.

4.2. Hierarchical Model Analysis

4.2.1. Construction of Evaluation Index System

There is an evaluation system for sustainable development based on the internal and external factors influencing the sustainable development of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest wellness tourism. This evaluation system pairs SWOT analysis factors, respectively, and then determines the corresponding sustainable development strategy. Next, a judgment matrix is constructed to determine system weights. Figure 3 shows the importance of the criterion and indicator layers, respectively. Twenty-eight evaluation forms were sent to experts and scholars in ecology, tourism, forestry, and agriculture, and managers of tourism companies, urban infrastructure units, mobile network maintenance units, and traditional Chinese medicine doctors through email and face-to-face consultation. Twenty-three forms were recovered, with an effective rate of 82%. The questionnaire adopts the “pairwise comparison” method, constructs a judgment matrix according to Formula (2), and calculates the weight corresponding to each indicator. We calculate the maximum eigenvalue and consistency ratio concerning Equations (6) and (8) and determine whether the indicators at each level pass the consistency test based on whether the CR value is less than 0.1 in

Table 5. The judgment matrix and consistency check at each project level.

Project Level	Judgment Matrix					Wi	λmax	CR	Consistency
Main target	A =	1	3	2	5	0.4605	4.0645	0.0242	pass
		1/3	1	1/3	2	0.1366
		1/2	3	1	5	0.3285
		1	3	2	5	0.0744
Strength	S =	1	13	22	22	0.4903	4.0018	0.00067	pass
		1/13	1	7	8	0.2381
		1/22	1/7	1	3	0.1392
		1/22	1/8	1/3	1	0.1324
Weakness	W =	1	20	29	30	0.6341	4.019	0.007	pass
		1/20	1	6	5	0.1858
		1/29	1/6	1	2	0.0924
		1/30	1/5	1/2	1	0.0877
Opportunity	O =	1	12	21	22	0.5046	4.0006	0.00024	pass
		1/12	1	7	8	0.2386
		1/21	1/7	1	3	0.128
		1/22	1/8	1/3	1	0.1288
Threat	T =	1	12	12	-	0.4689	3.279	0.027	pass
		1/12	1	3	-	0.2502
		1/12	1/3	1	-	0.2809
		1	12	12	-	0.4689

.

The next step is to determine the portfolio weights and weighted scores. The weight within the group represents the importance of each indicator in the indicator layer to which it belongs, so it is of great significance to calculate the relative importance of each indicator to the overall goal. The adequate response degree of the forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park to each indicator is scored, with a value between ±5 and ±1. The sensitivity decreases with the score and is divided into categories labelled extremely sensitive, relatively sensitive, sensitive, and mild. There are five levels of sensitivity and insensitivity, with positive values assigned to strengths and opportunities and negative values assigned to weaknesses and threats. Finally, the weighted score of each indicator is determined by multiplying the weight of each indicator combination and the corresponding score. The greater the absolute value within group, the greater the weight score, as shown in

Table 6. The combination of weight and weighted scores of the evaluation index system.

Target Layer	Criterion Layer	Weight within Group	Indicator Layer	Weight within Group	Combination Weight	Factor Score	Weight Score
Sustainable development Structural Model of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park	Strength	0.4605	S1	0.4903	0.1226	4	0.4903
			S2	0.2381	0.0595	5	0.2976
			S3	0.1392	0.0348	4	0.1392
			S4	0.1324	0.0331	3	0.0993
	Weakness	0.1366	W1	0.6341	0.1585	−4	−0.6341
			W3	0.1858	0.0465	−5	−0.2323
			W4	0.0924	0.0321	−3	−0.0693
			W5	0.0877	0.0219	−3	−0.0658
	Opportunity	0.3285	O1	0.5046	0.1262	4	0.5046
			O2	0.2386	0.0597	5	0.2983
			O3	0.1280	0.0320	3	0.0960
			O5	0.1288	0.0322	4	0.11288
	Threat	0.0744	T1	0.4689	0.1172	−3	−0.3517
			T3	0.2502	0.0626	−4	−0.2502
			T4	0.2809	0.0702	−3	−0.2107

.

According to the analysis of the weight results of the SWOT-AHP model, it is concluded that the strength > opportunity > weakness > threat to the sustainable development of wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. The internal strengths outweigh its weaknesses, especially the superior climate environment and rich biological resources within the territory, which provide innate conditions for the development of forest wellness tourism. Its weakness is mainly reflected in its infrastructure and professional talents. The necessary supporting facilities such as medical care, leisure and entertainment, sports fitness, catering, and accommodation are incomplete, the loss of professional talents is profound, and the training intensity is insufficient. It is necessary to continuously strengthen the construction of supporting facilities while focusing on talent training and building a professional team. From an external perspective, the expanding demand in the wellness market is a powerful driving force for the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. Policies are its basic guarantee. Relevant policies should be further implemented and guided by preferential policies, top-level design combined with market expansion opportunities, reasonable planning, and implementation. Difficulties in investment and financing are the biggest threat to the development of forest wellness tourism in national forest parks. Policies should be relaxed, financing channels should be expanded, and characteristic industries should be built based on advantages to enhance competitiveness, cater to diverse needs, and achieve sustainable development.

4.2.2. Development Strategy Analysis by QSPM

Regarding the strengths and weaknesses analyzed by SWOT, we identified the internal factor estimate matrix (IFEM), and regarding the opportunities and threats analyzed by SWOT, we identified the external factor estimate matrix (EFEM). Based on the weight results of the hierarchical model, the total strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are obtained as follows: total strength is S = 3.16643, total weakness strength is W = −0.91639, total opportunity strength is O = 3.35153, total threat intensity is T = −0.60018. A four-quadrant coordinate system is constructed with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as semi-axis variables. The total strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat are positioned in the four-quadrant coordinate system and connected sequentially to form a strategic evaluation matrix, as shown in Figure 4. The center of gravity coordinates of the strategic evaluation matrix diagram P (x, y) = P (0.56, 0.68) are obtained from Formula (14). The strategic type azimuth angle θ = 2° is determined from the coordinates of point P.

Based on the evaluation of the above matrix of internal and external factors, this study constructed a qualitative analysis SWOT matrix of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park’s competitiveness strategy in

Table 7. SWOT matrix analysis.

-	Internal Environment	Strength	Weakness
External environment		① Rich biological resources S1 ② Excellent climate and environment S2 ③ Diverse tourism resources S3 ④ Unique traffic location S4	① Shortage of professional talents W1 ② Poor infrastructure W3 ③ The backward operating mechanism W4 ④ Insufficient publicity W5
Opportunity	① Strong policy support O1 ② The market prospect is broad O2 ③ Wellness industry development O3 ④ Changes in consumption concepts O5	S-O Strategy Offensive Strategies ① Take advantage of the biological resources, climate, environment, and traffic location, strive for policy support (SO1). O1, O3, S1, S2, S3, S4 ② Protect the diverse tourism resources to keep the market prospect and promote wellness industry development (SO2). O2, O3, S3, S1, S2 ③Establish a service mechanism for public and private sector consumption concepts in resources, climate, environment, and transport (SO3). O5, O3, O1, S1, S2, S3, S4	W-O Strategy Developing Improved Strategies ① Strengthen talent introduction and training (WO1). O1, O2, O3, O5, W1, W4, W5 ② Strengthen the construction of the tourism service system (WO2). O1, O3, O5, W3, W4, W5 ③ Strengthen the integrated development of the wellness and tourism industries (WO3). O1, O2, O3, O5, W4, W5
Threat	① Peripheral competitive pressure T1 ② Difficulties in attracting investment and financing T3 ③ Diverse travel needs T4	S-T Strategy Strengthening avoidance strategies ① Protect tourism’s environmental resources (ST1). T1, S1, S2, S3 ② Strengthen service quality and cultural tourism depth (ST2). T1, T3, T4, S3, S4 ③ Strengthen research depth of original healthy lifestyle (ST3). T4, T1, S3, S4	W-T Strategy Defense perfect strategies ① Strengthen industrial integration and increase cross-sector investment (WT1). T1, T3, W5, W4 ② Increase the reserve of high-end service talents (WT2). T4, T1, W1, W4 ③ Improve supporting facilities and ecological balance (WT3). T1, T4, W3

. It formed four competitive strategies: SO, WO, ST, and WT. The SO strategy is an aggressive combination of strengths (S) and opportunities (O), and the WO strategy is a reversal combination of weaknesses (W) and opportunities (O). The ST strategy is a combination of strengths (S) and threats (T) and is a resistance combination, and the WT strategy is a defensive combination formed by disadvantages (W) and threats (T). The four competitive strategies construct four strategic plans, respectively.

Based on determining the position of the center of gravity coordinate P of the strategic matrix, analyzing the strategic intensity coefficient helps determine its development strategy. First, strategic intensity can be divided into positive and negative strategic intensity. The influencing factors of positive strategic intensity are internal strengths and external opportunities, while negative strategic intensity is affected by internal weaknesses and external threats. The following calculations were made based on the weighted scores of each factor for the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. The positive strategic intensity U = 1.0548, the negative strategic intensity V = 0.8137, and finally, the strategic intensity coefficient ρ = 0.5645 is obtained through Formula (18). The value range of ρ is between 0 and 1. The larger the value of ρ, the greater the implementation intensity of the strategy type.

According to the coordinates of the center of gravity and the range of the azimuth angle of θ, it is determined that forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park is a vital industry and should adopt a competitive, sustainable development strategy. Further, based on the strategic intensity coefficient ρ = 0.5645, it is concluded that the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park should actively adopt a competitive development strategy to enhance industrial advantages, achieve the sustainable development of tourism, and drive regional connections in industrial development.

As shown in Figure 4, the center of gravity of the SWOT strategic quadrilateral for the sustainable development of Chongqing wellness tourism falls in the first quadrant of the coordinate axis, that is, the area composed of advantages (S) and opportunities (O), which shows that the development of forest wellness tourism has relatively great potential. With good internal and external advantages, the SO strategy, composed of advantages (S) and opportunities (O), is currently the best development strategy. The SO strategy aims to seize opportunities and leverage advantages and includes three alternative plans. Using the biological resources, climate, environment, and traffic location, it strives for policy support (SO1). It protects diverse tourism resources to keep the market prospect and promote the development of the wellness industry (SO2), and establishes a service mechanism for public and private sector consumption concepts in resources, climate, environment, and transport (SO3). The priority of these three solutions needs to be determined using the QSPM matrix.

Using the four SO strategy alternatives as horizontal indicators and the four elements of the SWOT model as vertical indicators, this study constructed a QSPM matrix for the sustainable development competitive strategy of wellness tourism in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park. Among them, SO1–SO3 refers to the four alternatives of the SO strategy, S1–S4 corresponds to the four characteristic indicators of strength (S), W1–W4 corresponds to the four characteristic indicators of weakness (W), O1–O4 corresponds to the four characteristic indicators of opportunity (O), and T1–T3 corresponds to three characteristic indicators of threat (T). AS represents the evaluation attractiveness score of each characteristic indicator, assuming that under the simulated implementation of the corresponding alternative (one of SO1–SO3), the simulation implementation effect is estimated and evaluated according to the SWOT model. The TAS is the weighted total attractiveness score of each feature index score AS and its weight coefficient.

According to the analysis results in

Table 8. QSPM matrix of the sustainable strategy for Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest.

Characteristic	Factors	Weight Coefficient	Aggressive Portfolio Strategy
			SO1		SO2		SO3
			AS	TAS	AS	TAS	AS	TAS
Strength	S1	0.3781	4	1.5125	3	1.1344	2	0.7563
	S2	0.1836	4	0.7345	3	0.5509	3	0.5509
	S3	0.1074	4	0.4294	4	0.4294	4	0.4294
	S4	0.1021	3	0.3063	-	-	4	0.4084
Weakness	W1	0.1451	-	-	-	-	-	-
	W3	0.0425	4	0.1700	3	0.1275	4	0.1700
	W4	0.0211	3	0.0634	-	-	-	-
	W5	0.0201	-	-	4	0.0803	3	0.0602
Opportunity	O1	0.4114	4	1.6457	-	-	3	1.2343
	O2	0.1945	-	-		0.7782	-	-
	O3	0.1044	3	0.3131		0.4175	3	0.3131
	O5	0.1050	-	-	-	-	4	0.4201
Threat	T1	0.0866	-	-	4	0.3464	3	0.2598
	T3	0.0462	4	0.1848	-	-	3	0.1386
	T4	0.0519	3	0.1556	3	0.1556	4	0.2075
Total				5.5154		4.0201		4.9485

, the total scores of the SO1, SO2, and SO3 alternatives are 5.5154, 4.0201, and 4.9485, respectively. Therefore, the priority order of the three alternative strategic plans is SO1 > SO3 > SO2, indicating that the implementation plan for the sustainable development competition strategy of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Park can prioritize policy driving, service mechanism protection and demand for leadership in order. In addition, the gap between the demand-led (SO2) and policy guidance (SO3) alternatives is small, and both are given priority consideration based on priority.

5. Discussion

As a new strategy for developing the forest industry, with sustainable development as the goal, forest health tourism has found a unique and appropriate role in development. Some areas, such as Chongqing’s Tea Mountains and Bamboo Forest, have unique appeal due to their temperature, geography, and hydrology. Scholars have conducted extensive research on the forest resources in Chongqing to prioritize various aspects of wellness tourism and develop strategies [82].

Tea Mountain Bamboo Forest is rich in natural tourist attractions. Developing and prioritizing a strategic plan for forest wellness tourism will create forestry’s economic growth, promote vocational education in the West, and drive urban employment. In this study, the plan for the region was proposed from two perspectives to formulate strategies and plans for Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest through questionnaire surveys and expert interviews, combined with a document review of the regional yearbook. The initial perspective or model combines SWOT and AHP analysis techniques. The output contains an opportunities and threats table for seven external factors and a strengths and weaknesses table for eight internal factors. These elements also appear in the other tourism strategy study in the literature review [80].

Researchers often use hybrid models to make up for the weakness of the SWOT model in determining plan priorities [27,44]. This study utilizes the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) method to improve the effectiveness of the SWOT model. The integration of three application technologies, SWOT, AHP, and QSPM, makes this study different. First, SWOT analysis identifies the internal and external factors that affect the development of forest wellness tourism in Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest. Then, the AHP method and QSPM technology prioritize the strategies.

According to this study’s findings, “rich biological resources” and a “shortage of professional talents” are the most significant strengths and weaknesses. The “Strong policy support” and “Peripheral competitive pressure” were the most significant opportunities and threats. Then, the research combined the SWOT matrix to develop appropriate strategies for each combination of internal and external factors and analyze the optimal strategy set for the region with the matrix of internal/external factors.

The AHP and QSPM models were utilized in the second perspective. This study developed the AHP hierarchical structure, with the first level using strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat criteria, the second level using 15 internal and external sub-criteria, and the third level using optional strategies. The QSPM method combines SWOT analysis to select the optimal strategy from SO, ST, WO, and WT options. After comparisons, it was concluded that the positive strategic intensity U = 1.0548, the negative strategic intensity V = 0.8137, and the strategic intensity coefficient ρ = 0.5645. Tourism industry managers and decision-makers should consider pioneering and enterprising strategies. Therefore, according to the research results, the most effective strategy of Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest lies in the scope of attack, focusing on internal advantages and external opportunities.

This article determines the priorities based on the Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest Wellness Tourism Industry Development Plan:

(1)

Strive for policy support, taking advantage of the biological resources, climate, environment, and traffic location (SO1).

There should be a use of advantages such as biological resources, the climate, the environment, and the transportation location to gain policy support (SO1). The drive for policies is a significant influencing factor in the development of the health and wellness tourism industry in China. Policy support is needed for the protection of resources and the environment, the climate environment, the construction of the role of transportation hubs, and tax exemptions for service innovation projects. Therefore, the government should consider policy support for developing the forest health tourism industry.

(2)

Establish a service mechanism for public and private sector consumption concepts in resources, the climate, the environment, and transport (SO3).

After recent epidemics, public consumption concepts have changed significantly, and tourism consumers are more concerned about their psychological well-being and pleasure during the travel experience. Therefore, the construction of a service ecosystem is very critical. Obtaining wellness tourism information from tourists, generating experience ideas, convenient online booking, convenient connecting transportation, and personalized services require cooperation between various government departments, scenic spots, tourism-related enterprises, and communities. Therefore, the government should advocate new service mechanisms and provide convenient social services.

(3)

Protect the diverse tourism resources to keep the market prospect and promote wellness industry development (SO2).

The current development trend of an aging population and the pressures of urban life have led to a strong demand for forest wellness tourism [3]. The Asia–Pacific region has become the second largest consumer market for the global wellness industry [12], which has put forward new requirements for tourist destinations to develop wellness tourism products and service systems. Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest is rich in tea and bamboo ecological resources, and exploring the value of tea and bamboo products in the healthcare service process deserves managers’ attention [50]. For example, the development of tea and bamboo dietary conditioning, tea and bamboo meditation spaces, tea and bamboo elderly wellness centers, etc.

It is worth noting that the study mentioned that tour guides for forest wellness tourism are essential and require special training, consistent with previous studies by scholars [20]. Tour guides can bring tourists into the slow pace of life, immerse them in forest wellness tourism experience projects, and help them achieve a spiritual perception experience. Therefore, education units in Chongqing should fully exploit the advantages of vocational education in the West and open wellness tourism majors to meet the changing needs of the tourism market.

6. Conclusions

As a tourism hub in Southwest China, Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest is attractive to travelers due to its unique natural resources. Nevertheless, its features remain underdeveloped. Combining SWOT and AHP models, this descriptive analysis study attempts to formulate a Tea Mountain Bamboo Forest wellness tourism plan. Then, the development strategy of the Tea Mountain Bamboo Forest wellness tourism industry is determined and sorted. This paper uses the QSPM method to analyze internal and external factors quantitatively, and the results show that the total scores of the SO1, SO2, and SO3 alternatives are 5.5154, 4.0201, and 4.9485, respectively. The results indicate that pioneering and enterprising strategy in the forest wellness tourism development based on solidifying and maintaining the strengths and utilizing the opportunities available in the region, such as “Taking advantage of the biological resources, climate, environment, and traffic location, strive for policy support”, will help to “Protect the diverse tourism resources to keep the market prospect and promote wellness industry development”, and “To establish a service mechanism for public and private sector consumption concepts in resources, climate, environment, and transport”. Tour guides are essential for achieving forest wellness tourism, as their implementation provides the necessary services to enhance tourists’ perceived value.

Based on forest resources, this study explores the sustainable development strategy of forest wellness tourism based on the combined development of forest and wellness tourism. It enriches the research on the supply side of wellness tourism from a theoretical perspective and proposes a new understanding of the integrated development of the tourism industry.

Certain limitations were encountered during the study preparation. Due to funding and time constraints, this study only selected one case, and its findings cannot be generally applied. In addition, during the research process, the proportion of tourists and tourism employees increased, diluting experts’ opinions. Third, some experts have different understandings of the evaluation priority process with wellness tourism, resulting in a limited number of experts participating.