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This paper aims to critically analyse the circular economy (CE) models adopted in hospitality and tourism to tackle societal challenges in the current Anthropocene era, exploring the driving values and sustainability approaches.

A systematic literature review was carried out with an increasing level of analysis to delve more in-depth into the ability of the CE models to respond to current societal challenges. The review involved a stepwise analysis, starting with a thematic analysis of 151 papers to create a conceptual structure map of circular hospitality and tourism literature. Based on originality and representativeness, 22 papers were selected and analysed according to Hoffman and Jennings’ (2018; 2021) institutional approach to sustainability, which entails specific archetypes to address the Anthropocene society: market rules, technology fix and cultural re-enlightening.

The hospitality and tourism industry has made progress towards implementing CE models. However, CE models in market role and technology fix archetypes may fail to address the current challenges of the Anthropocene era. New culture-led approaches within the cultural re-enlightening archetype, such as the regenerative land practices, a-growth and place-making, and circular society, can foster a more radical shift towards strong sustainability.

The paper highlights the urgent need for a cultural shift towards radical and strong sustainability, identifying future research directions. Policymakers have a crucial role in shaping sustainability practices consistent with an ecological culture centred on acknowledging planetary boundaries.

Despite the increasing interest in CE models, it is still debated how the hospitality and tourism industry can continue to thrive while avoiding harmful impacts on the environment and local communities. The study critically reflects on the current contribution of CE models towards strong sustainability in hospitality and tourism.

This study investigates to what extent the values perceived by tourists throughout cultural tours impact their overall satisfaction levels and behavioral intentions related to the destination. This study further examines the moderating role of tour guide competency in the relationship patterns concerned.

Empirical data were collected via a survey from 420 foreign tourists who visited Cappadocia and participated in guided cultural tours. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Study results reveal that the effects of quality, emotional, monetary and social value perceptions of tourists gained through cultural tour experiences on their overall satisfaction levels and the effects of overall satisfaction on recommendation and revisit intention are positive and significant. Furthermore, the moderating role of tour guide competency is significant and positive in the relationships between quality value and satisfaction and between satisfaction and revisit intention.

This study offers a critical analysis of discoveries concerning the pivotal role of tour guide competency within the cultural tour experience.

Building on social media and destination brand-related literature, this study aims to explore World Heritage Sites’ (WHSs) brand diffusion and formation process from long-term and short-term perspectives, which includes brand diffusion, user-generated content (UGC), opinion leaders and brand events’ impact.

This study uses a mixed-method including text mining, keyword analysis and social network analysis to explore the brand formation process of four popular WHSs in Beijing, namely, the Palace Museum, Great Wall, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven and more than 10,000,000 users’ data on Sina Weibo has been implemented to uncover the underlying social media branding mechanism.

The results show that the number of postings keeps in a stable range in most months, but, in general, there are no common rules for changing trends among the four WHSs; long-term high-frequency keywords related to history and culture account for a higher percentage; different kinds of accounts have varying impacts on information diffusion, in which media accounts lead to a bigger influence. However, more followers do not necessarily mean more interactions and most of the interaction ratio is much lower than 0.01000; brand events facilitate brand dissemination and have an impact on the creation of UGC.

This study is valuable for destination marketers to deeper understand brand diffusion and formation and provides valuable insights for developing effective destination marketing strategies.

Unlike previous studies that only concern a few parts of destination brand formation via social media (e.g. brand diffusion, brand events or opinion leaders’ impact), this study takes a more comprehensive perspective by systematically analyzing the brand formation process of WHSs on social media. By considering both long-term diffusion and short-term representative events, this study provides a more holistic understanding of the branding mechanism.