Abstract
<jats:p>The systemic difficulties encountered in governing cross-border tourism disputes are rooted in three interlocking attributes: the inherent transnational nature of tourism activities, the structural inequality between participating parties, and pronounced differences in regional legal cultures. The cumulative effect of these attributes exposes structural deficiencies in traditional private international law when applied to China–Central Asia tourism disputes, notably the fragmentation of jurisdictional connecting factors and an imbalance in choice-of-law determinations. To address these challenges, this study adopts the protection of the weaker party as its core normative orientation and seeks pathways for reform along two dimensions—rule reconstruction and regional coordination. On the one hand, it proposes rebuilding a protective connecting-factor framework centred on the consumer’s habitual residence and supplemented by a market-targeting criterion, while establishing a choice-of-law principle that prohibits any diminution of the level of consumer protection. On the other hand, it advocates the development of dispute-resolution infrastructure combining a China–Central Asia cross-border tourism ODR platform with specialised collegiate benches, alongside the refinement of a dual-track regional cooperation mechanism driven jointly by judicial assistance and administrative regulation. By balancing state judicial sovereignty with the protection of consumer rights and interests, this approach aims to facilitate a transition in cross-border tourism dispute resolution from fragmented rule application to systemic institutional coordination, ultimately fostering a cross-border tourism rule-of-law community that ensures procedural accessibility, substantive justice, and strengthened regional mutual trust in the rule of law.</jats:p>