Impacts of eco-cultural tourism on landscape ecology in ethnic minority regions: A dual-level analysis of Southeast Guizhou, China

Mountainous minority regions in China, characterized by abundant natural and cultural resources, ecologically fragile environments, and often geographically remote locations, pose distinct developmental challenges and opportunities. Despite the complexity and typicality of Chinese mountainous ethnic minority regions in terms of eco-cultural tourism and land use dynamics, the interplay among tourism development, land use changes, and landscape ecological risk in these specific contexts has received insufficient attention. To explore how eco-cultural tourism development in ethnic minority mountainous regions affects land use and landscape ecology, this study investigates the evolution of land use in Southeast Guizhou Province from 1980-2020, integrating GIS spatial analysis, the landscape pattern index and landscape ecological risk index analysis. Over the past four decades (1980-2020), eco-cultural tourism has driven significant land use transformations characterized by substantial expansion of building land, growth of ecological land (notably forest land and water areas), and reduction of cultivated land. Concurrently, landscape ecological risk evolved through distinct phases — showing an overall increase during 1980-2000 with expanding medium-risk zones, followed by stabilization from 2000-2020. Tourism development accelerated these land transitions while fostering multifunctional compound land uses, enhancing both land value and utilization efficiency. Crucially, eco-cultural tourism in ethnic regions demonstrates capacity to reconcile ecological conservation with economic development, providing transferable models for similar regions globally.