From a Tourism Byproduct to a Niche Sector: The Cross-Sectoral Institutional Evolution of China’s Forest Wellness Policy (1990s–2020s)

While the cross-sectoral development of forest wellness has given rise to studies on individual physiological–psychological benefits and rural development, the evolution of its policy goals and instruments remains largely unexplored. This paper examines how forest wellness policy goals and instruments have evolved in China, and how changes in instrument configurations have corresponded with emerging policy goals, by adopting a longitudinal perspective and an integrated goal–instrument analytical framework. A dual-stream thematic analysis was conducted, combining manual qualitative thematic analysis and Structural Topic Modeling, using available excerpts from 74 identifiable national-level policy documents related to China’s forest wellness sector over approximately three decades. The findings reveal a three-stage evolutionary trajectory of policy goals and policy instruments. The analysis also identifies three manifestations of potential institutional friction: goal–instrument misalignment, instrument structural bias, and cross-sectoral coordination problems. Empirically, this study provides a longitudinal account of forest wellness policy development. Theoretically, it offers an institutional understanding of uneven goal–instrument evolution and contextualizes the Policy Instrument Theory by identifying sector-specific instruments across environment-side, supply-side, and demand-side dimensions to inform their operationalization in future research. Policy designers are advised to further improve goal–instrument alignment, rebalance the policy instrument configurations, and institutionalize cross-sectoral coordination mechanisms in a more sustainable manner.