Objective This study aims to propose scientific planning strategies through coupled analyses and promote ecological protection and sustainable development in forest ecotourism areas of Beijing.

Methods Taking Zhangshanying Township of Yanqing District in Beijing as an example, this study used morphological spatial pattern analysis to identify ecological source areas, applied the minimum cumulative resistance model to identify ecological corridors, and used the gravity model to classify the corridors. Meanwhile, the natural, social and phenomenal factors affecting recreational activities in the study area were identified through literature reading and questionnaire surveys, and the recreational opportunity spectrum was constructed and recreational zoning was delineated. Finally, the results of coupling ecological corridors and recreational zoning are presented, and specific planning strategies for different recreational zoning are proposed.

Results (1) The area of ecological sources in the study area is 147.19 km², accounting for 56% of the total area, and 15 potential ecological corridors were identified, with a total length of 63.88 km. (2) Ecological sources were mainly located in the northern woodland of the study area, and the ecological corridors connected the western and eastern ecological sources, which played a key role in maintaining the ecological environment of the study area. (3) Based on the spectrum of recreational opportunities, four types of recreational zones were classified as native, semi-native, intervening, and free zones, accounting for 19.7%, 40.9%, 31.2%, and 8.2%, respectively. (4) Based on the above results, specific forest ecotourism planning strategies for different recreational zones were proposed, including four aspects: community plant configuration, community structure, ecological corridor width, and traffic layout.

Conclusion From the perspective of ecological protection and tourists’ demand, this study emphasized the need for multi-dimensional ecological protection and development around key areas. This study not only enriches the theoretical content of ecotourism research, but also provides substantive theoretical guidance and practical suggestions for the sustainable development of forest ecotourism, which will help to accelerate the process of building the Beijing into a “capital of biodiversity”.