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Article History

Received: 22 January 2025

Accepted: 3 February 2026

First Online: 4 March 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: An exemption (waiver of ethics committee review) was granted by the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, on 15 January 2025 (Exemption/Reference No.: 20250115-1). The exemption was granted because the study was a non-interventional, anonymous online questionnaire on hotel interior decoration and tourists’ perceptions, collected no personally identifiable information and no sensitive personal information, and posed no more than minimal risk to participants. All procedures were conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (or equivalent standards) and applicable regulations and data-protection requirements. In line with the scope defined in China’s Measures for the Ethical Review of Life Science and Medical Research Involving Humans (issued 27 February 2023), which governs ethics review for life-science and medical research involving humans, the study was handled as exempt by the Approval Body. Data handling complied with the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and relevant national standards for personal information protection.

: Informed consent was obtained from all participants using an implied electronic consent procedure via the Wenjuanxing platform. During the survey period (2 December 2024 to 17 December 2024), an information sheet prepared by the research team was presented on the first page of the questionnaire and described the study purpose, why the research was being conducted, voluntary participation, anonymity of responses, foreseeable risks (none beyond minimal risk), data-handling procedures, and the option to withdraw by exiting the survey at any time before submission. Consent was indicated by each adult participant (aged ≥18 years) voluntarily proceeding to complete and submit the anonymous questionnaire. Consent covered participation, use of anonymized responses for research analysis, and publication of aggregated results. The research team analyzed only anonymized responses and reported results only in an aggregated/anonymized form. We confirmed that informed consent was obtained from all subjects.