In the digital age, network flow has profoundly altered both production and daily life, presenting new opportunities and challenges for places as well. The flow economy serves as a significant carrier of new quality productive forces and a vital means to drive place development. Developing new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions requires a key focus on the coupling relationship between flow and place. This study focuses on the relationship between flow and place, summarizing the impact of flow on place development trends. It analyzes the restructuring of place by flow in spatial, emotional, social, and economic dimensions, constructing a schematic representation of the relationship between flow and place development. Three types of coupling between flow and place are delineated: strong coupling, weak coupling, and decoupling. Based on this analysis, suggestions for collaborative governance are proposed. Geography needs to enhance its interdisciplinary integration with other fields, delving deeper into the mutual shaping and construction processes and mechanisms between flow and place. This will facilitate the innovation of place theories and serve the national strategy of modern governance. This endeavor seeks to provide a new theoretical foundation, practical strategies, and experiential insights for the localized development of new quality productive forces, thereby promoting the sustainable development of the tourism industry with stability and long-term vision. Simultaneously, it aims to offer a fresh perspective for expanding and deepening research on the relationship between flow and place.

National strategies such as digital China, industrial country, and cultural country are driving the coordinated development of modern industrial systems at the technological, economic, and social levels. New quality productive forces is also of great significance for enhancing national competitiveness and international influence. In the era of digital intelligence, the improvement and upgrading of tourism destination development is of great significance for building a modern tourism industry system. Compared to general industries, the production and consumption of the tourism industry have simultaneity, and tourism destinations also have a wide range of production factors and space in the process of attraction, marketing, service, and consumption. Based on the perspective of “technology-place” interaction, this paper explores the modes and paths of the development of new quality productive forces in tourism destinations and how new quality productive forces drives the shaping of new quality tourism destinations. The study finds that: 1) The new quality productive forces of tourism destinations is characterized by the evolution of four forces, including the fission of marketing power, the iteration of service power, the transmutation of attractiveness, and the continuous drive of consumption power, through the intertwining of digital intelligence empowerment, enable, and place spreading and integration. 2) The new quality productive forces accomplishes the unified and advantageous shaping of the new quality tourism destination through the 4 specific forces. The development of new quality productive forces of tourist destinations always needs to be closely adapted to the development foundation, development demand and development capacity of the places at the present stage. The relationship between the new quality productive forces and the new tourism destination is not a unidirectional and single cycle of influence, but is always in a state of mutual catalytic and co-evolutionary relationship.

In the field of tourism research, due to the distinctive nature of industry development and interdisciplinary paradigms, the study of the new quality productive force has unique characteristics. As China experiences social innovation driven by these forces, there is a pressing need for scholars to explore the theoretical construction of tourism’s new quality productive force. In the context of China’s innovative development driven by new quality productive forces, it is crucial to critically explore how the tourism sector, as a unique and integral part of these forces, should be conceptualized and theoretically constructed. Given that tourism is an interdisciplinary field involving multiple sectors, understanding new quality productive forces in tourism should be considered within diverse socio-economic contexts and specific scenarios. This study aims to understand and conceptualize these forces within the context of China’s modernization to achieve high-quality development. It focuses on the role of tourism in diverse socio-economic settings, particularly in the experience economy and innovative development. Through literature and case analysis, the study examines how the new quality productive force impacts local tourism by enhancing core attractions, introducing new elements, and integrating resources to strengthen local identity and emotional governance. It puts forward that, the new quality productive forces in tourism influence places by deepening existing core attractions and reinforcing the foundational tourist allure, while also adding new tourism elements and creating new highlights. Furthermore, they integrate resources, invigorating the service awareness and territorial characteristics of local stakeholders, and emphasizing the cultivation of place sense. In the era of video-based social media, the new quality productive forces in tourism can be defined as the capability to make previously overlooked places visible, the ability to transform non-tourism resources into attractive tourist assets, the power to overcome spatial barriers and facilitate the movement of tourists from their place of origin to the destination, and the capacity to enhance the duration of tourists’ stays, fostering a more immersive and poetic dwelling. These capabilities collectively shape the transformative potential of new quality productive forces in the tourism sector, driving sustainable and innovative development in alignment with the broader goals of high-quality growth. Ultimately, the study highlights how these forces, fueled by social media, can boost local tourism appeal and contribute to China’s modernization, offering insights for future research on how innovative technologies can enhance local sustainability.

The new quality productive forces originates from the advancement of the times and technological innovation. Emerging technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are comprehensively reshaping the development paths and models of the tourism industry across various dimensions, including human-environment relationships, tourist behavior, and industry governance. The article points out that the rise of new quality productive forces is closely related to the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology. New technologies represented by big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are reshaping the business forms and models of the tourism industry in an all-round way. This reconstruction involves not only the behavior and experience of tourists but also includes multiple aspects such as social interaction, local identity, and industry governance. The article, through the analysis of the comprehensive reconstruction of tourism by artificial intelligence, reveals the multiple impacts brought about by technological progress. On the one hand, technological empowerment allows tourists to experience tourism more deeply and personally, enjoying immersive and interactive tourism experiences; on the other hand, the development of technology also poses potential threats to the authenticity of places, the free and comprehensive development of individuals, and the perceptual experience of daily life. The article further discusses the 3 tendencies that need to be vigilant while promoting the high-quality development of the tourism industry with new quality productive forces: the dissolution of perceptual life, deprivation of local authenticity, and of deviation from the comprehensive development of individuals. The article emphasizes that the healthy development of technology should be centered on the comprehensive development of individuals, ensuring that technological progress serves the comprehensive progress of human society and the well-being of every individual.