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Many experts suggest that the human being explore marine resources and marine new energy sources to alleviate the shortage of land resources and the ecological degradation. However, island coastal zones are considered to be fragile ecosystems; their geographical location and natural characteristics, their biodiversity and associated ecosystems, and their exposure to diverse land and sea conditions all make them highly vulnerable to environmental changes and human activities. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve the goals of environmental protection and sustainable development on the basis of a comprehensive evaluation and understanding of islands.

Due to the importance of island groups, this paper conducts evaluation studies on them. Using the Delphi, AHP and TOPSIS methods, this study evaluated quantitatively the comprehensive development level and comprehensive development potential of island groups in terms of resources, natural environment, economy and society. Innovatively using them as two subsystems, the present study combined the coupling coordination model and the obstacle factor calculation method.

The prospective index of comprehensive development was applied to the Changdao Island Group in Yantai, Shandong Province as an example, and the final evaluation revealed that the comprehensive development prospect of this island group had an upward trend from 2010 to 2017. Future efforts should be made to improve its economic and social conditions and economic development status, apart from promoting its comprehensive development by improving human resources management, increasing the GDP growth rate, and improving fresh water and electricity supply.

This study takes the integrated development level of the island and the integrated development potential of the island as two subsystems, and the innovative application of the coupling coordination degree model is used to calculate the integrated development index of the island to understand the development status of the island area. On the basis of this model, the obstacle factor identification method is designed to identify the main obstacle factors, and on the basis of evaluation and identification, specific measures to ensure the sustainable development of the island area are effectively proposed.

This study aims to investigate two festivals that are held annually in Hong Kong, to explore the essence of festival meanings – the extent to which the perceived sociocultural benefits of festivals articulate the production of a sense of place (SOP) and its respective locality.

The study utilises a comparative analysis approach to examine visitors’ views of the festivals. It constructs a theoretical framework of the interaction mechanism between tourism and place evolution by relying largely on the notion of place as the centre of meanings. Data sources include interview, questionnaire, observation and a literature review.

The findings suggest festival meanings are crucial elements in fostering SOP and shaping the identification of place uniqueness. Being part of local tradition and tourism resource, festival representations are not only passive reflections of prevailing cultural values drawn from current stereotypes and images, but they also play a prominent role in shaping values, behaviours and identities by contributing to the socialisation process. Cultural regeneration through festivals may ultimately contribute to the ontological construction of a place.

Given the unknown profile of the participants to both festivals, this study employed a convenience sampling method which might have limited the power of generalising the research outcome to other festivals. Besides, this study overlooked the potential differences (or lack of difference) in perceptions of the local residents who visited both festivals for the first time and other residents. Future studies may consider other aspects of festivals and place conceptions widely used in the tourism research field, to validate whether additional insights or hidden festival-to-place relationships can be found in the process of hosting and promoting festivals.

The existing studies of tourism–place relationship, especially those repelling scientific-positivist methodological paradigm, tend to overemphasise the role of tourism in unmaking places. In contrast, the interrogation of island festivals as the centre of meaning offers an alternative perspective to highlight the process that tourism dialectically contributes to place evolution. Tourism unmakes places while possessing a dialectic role of making places.