Zhongjuan Ji demonstrates a strong and consistent record of scholarly excellence that makes her highly suitable for the Research Excellence Award. Her research spans sustainable tourism, cultural heritage development, digital cultural-tourism transformation, tourism spatial justice, and human–water relationships, supported by 52 citations, 6 Scopus-indexed documents, and an h-index of 4. She has contributed 12 indexed journal publications, including SSCI, CSSCI, ESCI, and AMI articles, along with four scholarly monographs, reflecting both productivity and impact across interdisciplinary tourism studies. Her projects-covering national, provincial, and international research initiatives-advance knowledge on rural revitalization, digitalization of cultural-tourism resources, tourism-driven poverty alleviation, heritage site sustainability, and manufacturing–tourism integration. Through collaborations with institutions such as Sun Yat-sen University, Northern Arizona University, and Suzhou University of Science and Technology, she has strengthened global academic partnerships while generating applied insights for government and industry, including contributions to cultural-tourism policy development in Tibet and Jiangsu. Her publications in journals such as Sustainability, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, Current Issues in Tourism, and Journal of China Tourism Research demonstrate methodological rigor and relevance to contemporary challenges in sustainable development. Her role as a reviewer for major journals and the National Natural Science Foundation of China further highlights her standing in the academic community. With a balanced portfolio of theoretical research, policy-oriented studies, and cross-disciplinary innovation, Zhongjuan Ji exemplifies the qualities of a high-impact scholar whose work advances both scientific understanding and real-world practice aligning perfectly with the objectives of the Research Excellence Award.