Psychological Restoration, Stress Relief and Visitor Well-Being: Lessons from Nature-Based Tourism for Urban Tourism Management (2005–2025)

Urban destinations increasingly incorporate green–blue infrastructure, sensory-balanced public spaces and microclimate-responsive design to mitigate visitor fatigue and support sustainable tourism experiences. To understand how insights from broader tourism environments, particularly nature-based contexts, can inform emerging urban well-being strategies, this study conducts a global bibliometric review (2005-2025) on psychological restoration, stress relief and visitor well-being. Using Scopus and a Boolean search combining mental-health constructs, tourism settings and analytical approaches, 825 records were identified and 149 articles were retained after applying eligibility criteria. Science-mapping and performance analyses reveal accelerated post-2018 growth and three dominant knowledge clusters centred on restoration pathways, environmental determinants and behavioural/hospitality components. Based on these patterns, the study introduces the RESTOR-URBAN model, integrating environmental moderators, psychological mechanisms and behavioural interactions that jointly shape stress reduction and emotional well-being across urban tourism systems. Results show increasing relevance of micro-restorative experiences, thermal-comfort management and stress-aware service design, while highlighting persistent methodological heterogeneity and limited integration of environmental co-data (UTCI, PET, DI). The findings demonstrate that restoration-based evidence from nature-based tourism can inform sustainable urban tourism planning, hospitality practice and visitor-experience design, and propose a research agenda emphasising standardised well-being indicators, longitudinal and SEM-based modelling, and environmental-quality variables for resilient, health-oriented urban destinations.