**6. Conclusions and Policy Implications**

This study proposes a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between the energy literacy of residents and sustainable tourism development in ethnic areas and highlights the important role of the initiatives of residents in improving their energy literacy in tourism development. The conclusions of this study are as follows:

As the tourism industry in the village has developed, the energy literacy of the residents has changed. Prior to the development of tourism, the energy literacy of Ping'an village residents could be summarized as a low level of energy knowledge, unpleasant energy attitudes, and simple energy behavior. With the development of tourism in Ping'an, the energy literacy of residents has changed to upward energy knowledge, economic attitude towards energy, and positive energy behavior. Both external and internal factors contribute to the improvement of residents' energy literacy in tourism development. External factors contain economic development, communication with external tourists, diversified access to knowledge, and government support. The key reason for this improvement is the internal factors that form the initiative of residents in Ping'an to seek self-change by developing tourism in order to get out of poverty and achieve wealth through tourism. This positive determination to change the backward village has led to a greater increase in the energy literacy of the residents in the village.

The improved energy literacy of the residents affects tourist behavior and sustainable tourism destinations. In Ping'an village, residents guide tourists in three main areas, guiding them to pay attention to energy and gain energy cognition in tourism; in energy attitudes, guiding them to be concerned about the impact of energy consumption; and in tourism behavior, guiding them to save energy and reduce carbon emissions. Moreover, increasing the energy literacy of residents also impacts the sustainable development of the tourist site mainly by changing the structure of energy use and improving the infrastructure of the tourist site.

This study also has implications for policy makers and managers of tourist destinations. When considering how to make public policy on energy literacy in tourist areas, the initiative of residents can be used as a point of regulation. Before providing energy education, in addition to attracting tourism investment, it would be useful to motivate residents to seek their own initiative for tourism development. Only if residents can actively seek tourism development on their own will they be better able to promote their demand for energy literacy improvement. Meanwhile, in the process of training in energy literacy related to tourism, it is also necessary to provide guidance on the energy attitudes of residents until they are internalized in their daily energy behavior, thus encouraging them to optimize their energy use. For the managers of tourist resorts, they should also recognize that improving the energy literacy of residents will contribute to guiding the energy behavior of tourists, which will better protect local tourism resources and promote sustainable tourism development. Therefore, resort managers should take the initiative to cooperate with residents, identify the energy-related problems in the process of tourism development, and guide the resources of various stakeholders to solve the corresponding problems, so that the resort can obtain sustainable development.

Although this study is based on a survey of Ping'an residents, the findings can be extrapolated to other ethnic tourism areas and tourism products that are somewhat dependent on energy and environmental requirements, such as ecotourism, mountain tourism, and rural tourism. Due to the limitations of the research conditions, the research efforts of the researchers, and the overall sample size of the village residents, this study mainly collected data based on qualitative research through field surveys and in-depth interviews to provide a relatively in-depth understanding of the energy literacy of ethnic residents and sustainable tourism. However, it is also worth using quantitative research in the future to measure the energy literacy of the perspectives of tourists to discuss the impact on local, sustainable tourism.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.W., Y.L. and C.F.; Data curation, S.W., C.F. and P.J.; Formal analysis, S.W. and C.F.; Funding acquisition, S.W.; Investigation, S.W., C.F. and P.J.; Methodology, S.W., Y.L., C.F. and P.J.; Project administration, S.W. and C.F.; Supervision, Y.L., C.F. and P.J.; Writing—original draft, S.W. and C.F.; Writing—review & editing, S.W. and Y.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China Study Foundation of China, grant number 42001165, Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China, grant number 2021JJ40351, the Hunan Education Department Scientific Research Project, grant number 19B336, and the Humanities and Social Sciences Project of the Training Plan for 1000 Young and Middle-aged Key Teachers in Guangxi Universities (2021QGRW061).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
