Digital Tourism Empowers the Dynamic Transformation of Destination Spatial Forms: A Case Study of Mountain Villages in Eastern China

With the deep integration of digital technology and the tourism industry, the transformation of the spatial form of smart tourism destinations and the research on their system structure have become the focus. This study adopts a mixed research approach, taking villages in the mountainous areas of southeastern China as examples, and collects empirical data through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and literature collection. This study draws on structuralist location theory to construct a four-dimensional spatial analysis model of natural environment, production economy, social norms and cultural values and incorporates a historical perspective to make up for the limitations of this theory in explaining regional dynamic changes caused by the lack of a time dimension. This study finds that digital tourism provides external resources such as the consumer market, tourism capital and information technology prompting the reconfiguration of the rural internal system. By absorbing external resources and upgrading traditional industries, rural areas have formed a more diversified, inclusive, and dynamically balanced spatial form. Furthermore, phenomena such as villagers’ relocation, e-commerce employment and local tea-growing knowledge indicate that certain predicaments still exist in the construction of digital tourism. This research can provide practical references for the development and spatial optimization of rural digital tourism.