Forest-based health tourism is an important part of health tourism, which has gradually become the internal demand of urban residents for a healthy life. However, few studies have explored the factors influencing the willingness of forest-based health tourism in the period of epidemic prevention and control. From the perspective of cognition and social trust, this study explored the impact of cognition and social trust on the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents during COVID-19, and proposed feasible suggestions for revitalizing the development of forest-based health tourism under the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on online questionnaire data collected from 383 Chinese respondents, a binary Logistic regression model was constructed for analysis. The results showed the following. (1) Cognition of health preservation had a significant positive effect on the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents, while epidemic prevention cognition had no significant effect. (2) Social trust played a significant role in promoting the behavioral decision of wellness tourism in forest among urban residents. Public trust and interpersonal trust had significant positive effects on the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents. (3) Educational level and health status were the demographic factors that affected the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents. These findings provide theoretical references for policy makers to attract tourists and realize the sustainable development of forest-based health tourism, and provide important implications for tourism marketing and destination management under the COVID-19 pandemic.

At present, the market demand for forest health tourism is weak. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether frugality inhibits the intention of forest health tourism and whether the positive effect of cognition on the intention of forest health tourism can compensate for the inhibition of frugality. Based on mental account theory and planned behavior theory, this study constructs a structural equation model with intermediary variables—health consumption mental account and forest health consumption attitude. According to the results of the path analysis of the data, which was collected through the questionnaire survey of urban residents, the positive influence of cognition can compensate for the inhibitory effect of frugality. On this basis, mediating effect analysis based on multigroup comparison is further carried out. This study verifies for the first time the inhibitory effect of frugality on the intention for forest health tourism, enriches the theoretical system of tourism consumer behavior, and provides a scientific basis for the market positioning of forest health and the formulation of marketing strategies.