The provision of adequate and equitable sanitation services is one of the world’s urgent challenges. Optimizing the layout of tourist toilets is key to both meeting the sanitation demand of the visiting public and building an inclusive and civilised society. Nevertheless, the need for a consistent optimization of tourist toilets is overlooked in developing countries, especially in ethnic regions that are highly dependent on tourism. Taking Dunhua, a city in an ethnic region renowned for tourism on China’s border with North Korea as an example, this study enables an optimization framework of a comprehensive tourist toilet layout based on Holling’s concept of resilience by constructing an AHP index, obtaining Point of Interest (POI) data through Python, and aided by GIS visual analysis and Location-allocation (LA) modelling, aiming to support scientific planning and decision making of public facilities in tourist destinations like Dunhua. It also serves as a reference for places of tourism in other countries dedicated to promoting ecotourism and public health.

Border tourists from China to North Korea have become significant economic engines for the development of North Korea’s economy, so that the North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jung-Un has been largely interested in the tourism cooperation with China. Thus, this study examined the border tourism between China and North Korea. Results showed that the border tourism in the region has been changing from in the form of cross-border tourism to trans-border tourism cooperation. In particular, it was found that over the years three countries in the Tumen river area(i.e., China, North Korea, Russia) have collaborated together to build a shared vision for the tourism development, the Tumen River Delta International Tourism Zone, which is composed of the three countries’ territories. We suggest that both public and private sectors in Korea should consider proactively participating in the international tourism cooperation in Tumen river. Also, the tourism cooperation project led by the local governments in the river area suggests that regional governments in the border between South and North Koreas should take the lead in developing the peaceful relations in the border. Due to the difficulty in collecting empirical evidence, this study took an exploratory approach including literature review and fieldwork to collect on-site information, and suggestions for future study based on empirical data analysis would contribute to improving the body of literature on border tourism in Northeast Asia.

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Purpose This study aims to explore the characteristics of the Korean-Chinese outbound tourism to South Korea by particularly focusing on VFR market. The vast majority of the ethnic group reportedly visit South Korea to see and reunite their families, friends and/or relatives. Despite the significance of Chinese inbound tourism market in South Korea, academic understanding of the heterogeneous segments in the market is still lacking. Methods Online and offline surveys which were conducted in 2019, for adults and college students group and young students group, respectively. Results It showed that VFR is the ethnic group’s main purpose of traveling to South Korea (average 75.1%), which is consistently true to all segments including adults, college students, and young students in this study. They also collected travel information from reference groups including families and relatives alongwith the Internet and commercial travel information, and, in contrast to general Chinese outbound tourists, different destinations in Korea were preferred by the target groups (e.g., Incheon) and their travel behavior is different in terms of the length of staying and expenditure behavior. Conclusion Findings contribute to better understanding Chinese VFR tourism market and accommodating the unique needs of the segment. In particular, this study will prompt timely actions to deal with the recovery and resilience of the travel and tourism sector after the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Ocean acidification is a new problem for humans that rose recently. It has been drawing attention from people. It is getting more serious and important with the continuous carbon emission to the atmosphere. The threatens from ocean acidification are affecting multiple characters, especially organisms like marine animals and marine plants. Researches show the change in the pH will affect the lifespan and the reproduction process of marine organisms. Besides the impact on organisms, ocean acidification is also likely to impact the global climate. For places located around the tropical area, ocean acidification will bring more frequent storms and hurricanes. Focused on the problem, we want to seek solutions. However, currently, there are no direct ways to address the problem of ocean acidification. Some hypotheses have been made, such as managing the seaweed and the precipitation method, but these approaches are immature and currently inapplicable. The most practical method to slow down ocean acidification is to make agreements and regulations to directly control carbon emission. Future agreements should increase the collaboration internationally and apply the most suitable measures locally. This research aims to provide background knowledge for future studies about the ocean.