Culture and tourism are important means to implement the strategy of rural revitalization and play a significant role in promoting the high-quality development and common prosperity of rural areas of China. This study analyzed 933 Chinese publications and 71 English publications retrieved from the CNKI and Web of Science databases, and used the CiteSpace software to analyze the overall situation of the research and hotspots of rural revitalization research from the perspective of culture and tourism. The results show that the research on rural revitalization from the perspective of culture and tourism in China has significant policy-oriented characteristics, and the research intensity has increased year by year. Existing research has proposed hotspots, such as rural cultural and tourism resources and landscapes, rural cultural and tourism integration, rural cultural and tourism enrichment, rural industrial development and integration, rural ecotourism, and cultural and tourism rural governance, combining with the goal of implementing the rural revitalization strategy. Although the research content is relatively rich, there is a lack of further exploration. The research methods are mainly qualitative, and the percentage of quantitative research is low. The study areas are relatively dispersed, mainly concentrated in the southwestern area, at various scales including village, township, county, and province. Finally, this review combined the contents of existing literature and proposed that future research should be innovative in terms of theory, research content, research methods, and study areas, in order to promote the integrated development of rural culture and tourism, provide references for subsequent research, and comprehensively promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.
Rural industrial revitalization is the key to rural revitalization. Based on the enterprise data, this study constructed an evaluation indicator system of rural industrial revitalization. Taking the first three batches key rural tourism villages in China as the research object, the level of rural industrial revitalization in China was measured and analyzed. The multiscale geographically weighted regression model (MGWR) was used to analyze the influencing factors and spatial differentiation of rural industrial revitalization, and the development mode and driving mechanism of rural industrial revitalization were summarized. The results show that: 1) From 2010 to 2019, the level of industrial revitalization of key rural tourism villages in China showed a fluctuating growth trend. Villages of high industrial revitalization level were concentrated in the surrounding areas of metropolitan regions and cities with rich tourism resources. 2) There were scale effects and spatial heterogeneity in the influencing factors of the industrial revitalization level of key rural tourism villages. Transportation, governance capacity, and infrastructure had a global impact, while geographical location and tourism economy had local effects. 3) Industrial revitalization of key rural tourism villages can be divided into resource-oriented type, location radiation type, and comprehensive management type. The industrial endogenous development mechanism, the location-led radiation driving mechanism, and the governance-led interest coordination mechanism are the main driving mechanisms for rural industrial revitalization. The research results can provide a reference for enriching the theory and promoting the practice of rural industrial revitalization.
Urban-rural integration is a key path in promoting common prosperity, and tourism development is a key link to solve the "three rural issues" and an important channel to realize the two-way flow of urban and rural elements. This study analyzed the theoretical basis and strategic practice of urban-rural integration and explored the synergistic evolution mechanism between tourism development and urban-rural integration with the goal of achieving common prosperity. The results show that: 1) The overall tourism development level and urban-rural integration level in the Western Hunan region showed small fluctuations from 2012 to 2020, with an overall declining trend. Tourism sustainability was greater than tourism development potential, followed by tourism sharing ability; and urban-rural development balance was higher than coordination, followed by inclusiveness. 2) The degree of synergy of tourism development and urban-rural integration in the Western Hunan region fluctuated greatly over time, and the synergistic relationship leaped from the preliminary synergy to the intermediate synergy stage. The two-way interactions strengthened, but due to the lag in synergy in some areas, the region as a whole has not been able to advance to the high synergy stage. 3) The spatial differences in the synergy values of tourism development and urban-rural integration are significant, and the overall differences originate from intra-regional differences. Among them, the synergy difference of Huaihua City decreases, and the synergy difference of Xiangxi Prefecture and Zhangjiajie City expands. 4) The degree of synergy of tourism development and urban-rural integration in the Western Hunan region was influenced by economic development, the degree of marketization, and the advanced industrial structure in decreasing order. There was spatial heterogeneity in the influence of the above three factors in the region.
In the context of improving livelihood and welfare, it is important to reveal the impact of tourism industry agglomeration on safeguard livelihood and welfare in the course of development. This study examined the mechanism of impact of tourism industry agglomeration on livelihood and welfare by measuring tourism industry agglomeration using location quotient, constructing a comprehensive evaluation indicator system of livelihood and welfare, and conducting an in-depth investigation into the effect of tourism industry agglomeration on livelihood welfare based on the data of 24 districts and counties in Western Hunan from 2006 to 2020 using panel regression models. The results show that: 1) The degree of tourism industry agglomeration slightly declined in the study period, showing a fluctuating development trend; the level of livelihood and welfare roughly presented a steady increasing trend, and only declined in 2020 due to the strong impact of the pandemic. 2) The spatial mismatch between tourism industry agglomeration and livelihood and welfare was significant, with the former more prominent in Yongding District, Wulingyuan District, and Fenghuang County, while the latter was higher in Hecheng District, Jishou City, Yongding District, Cili County, Yuanling County, and Xupu County. 3) The overall ranking of the obstacles in the various dimensions of livelihood and welfare was: social stability > cultural prosperity > economic affluence > government initiative > ecological civilization, while there were some differences among districts and counties. Particularly, the role of governmental action on livelihood and welfare was significant in Hecheng District. 4) In general, tourism industry agglomeration had a negative effect on livelihood and welfare, but there were regional and temporal heterogeneities. Regionally, tourism industry agglomeration in Huaihua City had a positive effect on livelihood and welfare enhancement. Temporally, the effect of tourism industry agglomeration on livelihood and welfare turned positive during 2016-2020. The Western Hunan region should promote the simultaneous growth of the scale, quality, and efficiency of the tourism industry, and continue to stimulate the positive effect of tourism industry agglomeration, so as to effectively enhance livelihood and welfare.
Preventing large-scale return to poverty is of great significance for consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and promoting rural revitalization. Taking Enshi Prefecture in the Wuling Mountains region as the research area, four rural tourism development models in poverty alleviation areas were identified: resource-driven, industry-driven, cultural tourism-led, and enterprise-driven. According to the sustainable livelihood theory and the analytical framework of risk and vulnerability, a risk evaluation indicator system of rural tourism area households was constructed, and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was adopted to effectively identify the risk of rural tourism area households under the differentiated development models, and the pathways of blocking the risk was proposed. The results show that: 1) The risk of returning to poverty of the rural households in the case study area is high in the physical capital and financial capital sense, and the risk of returning to poverty is low in the human capital and livelihood adaptability sense, and the overall level is average, that is, there is a certain risk of falling back into poverty. 2) In the four case study villages with different development models, there are obvious internal differences between the dimensions of the risk of returning to poverty. The risk of returning to poverty is higher for resource-driven and enterprise-driven rural livelihood types than for cultural tourism-led and industry-driven types, the risk of resource-driven rural livelihood type is high in the livelihood background and natural capital dimension, the risk of enterprise-driven rural livelihood type is the highest in the physical capital and financial capital dimension, and the risks of returning to poverty highly differ. 3) We proposed differentiated pathways to stop returning to poverty by focusing on strategies such as improving human capital, enhancing social capital, revitalizing natural capital, and balancing physical capital for the four models. Also, we should give full play to the advantages of resources, industries, and enterprises, expand the scope of prevention and control of groups at risk of returning to poverty, and pay special attention to the people who have been lifted out of poverty and the marginalized population. The study focused on consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and provides theoretical guidance and practical pathways for the further revitalization of poverty-stricken rural areas.
Rural tourism development is an important force to promote the rural revitalization strategy and can realize people's aspiration for a better life and improve their quality of life. Subjective well-being is an important representation of residents' quality of life. This study aimed to explore the formation mechanism of the "turning point of happiness" phenomenon in tourism destinations, and thus provide a scientific guidance for tourism to boost the realization of rural revitalization strategy. Based on the social representations theory and arousal modulation theory, this study selected two villages in the development stage (Enhe Village, Ergun City, Inner Mongolia) and consolidation stage (Shiwei Village, Ergun City, Inner Mongolia) to apply a simultaneous cross-sectional design, and used the fsQCA method to investigate configuration paths of the impact of values and perceived value on residents' subjective well-being. Based on comparison, we found that: From the development stage to the consolidation stage, the subjective well-being of residents in the tourism community showed a downward trend. There were significant differences in the social, cultural, and functional value perceptions of residents in the two places, and there were also significant differences between individualism and horizontal collectivism. Each dimension of perceived value and the values were not the necessary condition for forming residents' high-level subjective well-being. In the development stage (Enhe), the perceived economic and cultural value and horizontal collectivism played a more prominent role in forming residents' high-level subjective well-being. In the consolidation stage (Shiwei), the role of perceived economic and social values and individualism in forming residents' high-level subjective well-being was more prominent. The results show that: 1) Residents' subjective well-being is influenced by both perceived value and values. It is not only stimulated by external tourism impact, but also regulated by residents' internal social representation system. 2) There were differences in the antecedents of residents' subjective well-being between the development stage and the consolidation stage. The driving factors of perceived value changed from "economy + traditional cultural life" to "economy + extroverted social relations", and the effects of horizontal collectivism values weakened in the large enterprises. 3) The "turning point of happiness" resulted from the weakened effect of "material + independent self" on residents' subjective well-being in the first stage, while the "non-material + interdependent self" has not been fully awakened and supported in the second stage. The research holds that creating cultural value resonance core, expanding value co-creation circle, enhancing tourism value function, and following modern value transformation patterns are effective ways to transcend the "turning point of happiness" in tourism village governance.
Placeness is the fundamental factor for ethnic villages to develop tourism. This study focused on the placeness reconstruction of mountainous ethnic tourism villages and the influencing factors of their strength and weakness level. We used the fsQCA analysis method to explore the antecedent condition combination of placeness strength and weakness of ethnic villages, which consists of physical geographical environment, social structure and function, residents' emotional value and behavior, enterprise operation and production, and tourists' participation, experience, and behavior. The results show that: 1) There is a complex relationship between the placeness of ethnic tourism villages and their antecedent conditions, and individual conditional variables cannot constitute sufficient conditions that affect the level of placeness reconstruction. It is affected by a combination of the factors. 2) There are eight combination paths of factors affecting the placeness level of ethnic tourism villages, with an overall consistency of 0.900 and an overall coverage rate of 0.890. The path with the optimal original coverage and consistency is combining residents, communities, businesses, and tourists. 3) There are four types and eight combinations of paths that affect the placeness reconstruction process and level of mountainous ethnic tourism villages, namely traditional place atmosphere driven, host-guest interaction driven, tourism production driven, and value co-creation driven. Together, these paths explain how conditional factors affect the placeness reconstruction of mountainous ethnic tourism villages under the mechanism of diachronic and synchronic perspective of placeness reconstruction. This study theoretically enriches the content of placeness research, which provides some references for the further exploration of the unique characteristics of mountainous ethnic tourism villages and the sustainability practice of tourism areas.
Evaluating tourism competitiveness is important for ensuring the sustainable development of rural tourism. In the digital information era, multi-source data and machine learning methods can efficiently reveal the characteristics of relevant elements from a geospatial perspective, providing a new method for scientific evaluation of rural tourism competitiveness. Based on multi-source remote sensing and Internet data at the village level from 2019 to 2022, this study identified the rural tourism competitiveness in Lin'an District of Hangzhou City using four machine learning models, including logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting tree (XGB), and the optimal model was selected to reveal the spatial pattern of competitiveness and analyze the critical indicators of identification. The results show that: 1) The accuracy of the rural tourism competitiveness evaluation using the random forest (RF) model is better than the other three machine learning models. 2) Tourism resources, service facilities, accessibility, and policy conditions are the main factors affecting the rural tourism competitiveness. 3) Villages in the high tourism competitiveness category are distributed in strips in the northern and western areas of Lin'an District, with superior development conditions. The medium competitiveness villages are distributed in clumps in the eastern and central-western areas of the district, which have lower quality of tourism resources and service facilities. Low-competitiveness villages are distributed in patches in the central and western areas of the district, with superior ecological environment and land endowment, but lacking resource development and policy support. The study results may provide some policy references and technical supports for promoting the sustainable development of rural tourism.
Tourism activities are an important disturbance factor for landscape change in rural tourist sites, and it is important to study the pattern of change of recreational agriculture landscape under tourism disturbance for the high-quality development of rural tourism. Recreational agriculture landscape is one of the core elements of rural tourism in Wuyuan County. From the perspective of tourism driven, this study used landscape transfer matrix and landscape index methods to examine the pattern of change of recreational agriculture landscape in Wuyuan County between 2000 and 2020, and analyzed the driving forces such as natural, socioeconomic, and tourism factors through the grey relational model. The study found that: 1) The recreational agriculture landscape in Wuyuan County is highly compatible with the distribution of tourism sites, and the recreational agriculture landscape area showed the characteristics of first increasing and then decreasing, but in general has decreased. 2) At the landscape scale, landscape fragmentation and separation showed an N-shaped fluctuation, and landscape dominance and disturbance showed an increase followed by a decrease. With regard to the land-use types, the fragmentation and separation of paddy landscapes are relatively stable, while the fragmentation and separation of grassland and marshlands showed an increase and then a decrease and the rest of the recreational agriculture landscapes generally showed an increase. The LPI indices of drylands, wooded lands, and other woodlands showed an increase and then a decrease, while the LPI indices of rivers and canals, lakes, and reservoirs and ponds generally showed an increase, and the rest of the recreational agriculture landscapes generally showed a decrease. 3) Tourism factors such as comprehensive tourism income, tourist reception, ticket income, the number of A-class scenic spots, the number of farming caravans, and the number of travel agencies are the main driving factors for the change of each landscape pattern, while socioeconomic factors have an important driving influence on landscape dominance and disturbance, and natural factors are a weaker driving force. The research results provide some theoretical reference and practical basis for the optimal layout and high-quality development of recreational agriculture and rural tourism in Wuyuan County, which will help promote the sustainable development of recreational agriculture and rural tourism in Wuyuan County and achieve the coordinated development of economic, social, and environmental benefits.
Against the backdrop of the healthy china and rural revitalization strategy, forest-based health and wellness tourism not only meets people's natural needs, but also provides new ideas for the transformation and development of rural tourism. This study constructed a spatial suitability evaluation system for forest-based health and wellness tourism from three dimensions: comfort, ecological sensitivity, and development conditions. Taking Beijing—a city with great potential for forest therapy tourism market demand and development—as an example, quantitative evaluation and visualization were carried out by combining multi-criteria decision-making AHP and GIS spatial analysis tools. The results show that: 1) Among the first-level indicators of the spatial suitability evaluation system of forest-based health and wellness tourism, comfort has the highest importance; Among the secondary indicators, quality of vegetation has the highest importance, and excellent forest resources are the primary conditions for forest therapy tourism. 2) The spatial suitability grade of forest-based health and wellness tourism in Beijing was divided into four grades from low to high, namely, grade I, grade II, grade III, and grade IV, of which grades III and IV areas account for 53% of the total, mainly concentrated in the northwestern mountains of Beijing. 3) From the perspective of natural zoning, the shallow mountain areas are dominated by grades III and IV areas, and the deep mountain area are dominated by grades II and III areas. As a whole, 75% of the grades III and IV areas are distributed in the deep mountain areas. The plain areas provide residents with daily forest recreation space, the shallow mountain areas are dominated by standard forest products, and the deep mountain areas meet the personalized needs of tourists. 4) From the perspective of administrative region, the spatial suitability level of forest-based health and wellness tourism in each administrative district is unevenly distributed, and the spatial suitability grade is gradually decreasing from northwest to southeast. Yanqing District, Huairou District, and Miyun District can be the priority development areas of forest-based health and wellness tourism in Beijing. 5) In terms of development strategy, considering the impact of tourism resources on the spatial distribution of forest-based health and wellness tourism, Yanqing District is forming a characteristic development mode of "rural homestay + winter skiing + Great Wall culture"; The forest resources of Huairou District rank the highest in the city, and the district is forming a characteristic development mode of "living in the forest: green health food + mountain town + forest oxygen bar", which combines in-depth experience with "standard forest products"; A development mode of "family tourism + mountain hot spring" is formed around the Miyun Reservoir in Miyun District. The results of this study can provide a decision-making basis for the spatial optimization of forest-based health and wellness tourism and the high-quality development of rural tourism.
The formation of a village governance community is important for supporting the modernization of rural governance capacity, promoting sustainable rural development, and realizing common prosperity. Although village collective enterprises are the key actors driving the formation of village governance community, the generation paths need to be further explored. With Yudong Tourism Company of Quzhou City in Zhejiang Province as a case, this study engaged the actor network theory as the theoretical framework and integrated policy analysis, semi-structured interviews, and online text analysis to analyze the dynamic process and interactions of village collective enterprises promoting the establishment of action networks. On this basis, we explored the local paths of village collective enterprises driving the generation of rural governance community. The study found that the village collective enterprise initially built the action network of village governance community through establishing common goals, interest recruitment and mobilization, and transformation and optimization. The company further promoted the generation of a rural governance community through the construction of two complementary paths of cultural space strengthening and social space renewal. This study summarized the local paths of rural governance community generation, analyzed the functions and roles of village collective enterprises, and provides some theoretical and empirical references for sustainable rural development with the aim to achieve common prosperity.
With China's victory in the fight against poverty, the transformation of rural civilization has become a topic of great concern. Rural public cultural space is an important vehicle for rural civilization change and rural cultural governance, and ancestral halls are a traditional and typical type among these spaces. The results of our analysis show that the contemporary reproduction of ancestral halls is embedded in the context of rural cultural governance. The perspective of rural cultural governance provides co-temporal explanatory power for understanding the logic of the reproduction of contemporary rural ancestral halls. Ancestral halls on the countryside achieve spatial reproduction through the operation of space, subject, practice, and value. The study also mapped out the way of contemporary rural cultural governance. Relying on specific governance vehicles of the rural public cultural space, reasonably delineating the responsibilities of governance subjects, using empirical governance techniques, and emphasizing rural governance goals can stimulate the inherent vitality and effectiveness of rural cultural governance, realize the cultural revitalization of traditional villages, and thus promote the overall revitalization of the countryside.
Traditional villages is an important spatial carrier of Chinese traditional culture. It is vital for traditional villages to highlight outstanding traditional culture under new urbanization. Taking the Huangdu Dong Cultural Village as an example, this study analyzed the process and mechanism of the spatial production of landscape symbols by participatory observation and in-depth interviews based on the concept of landscape symbol, the theory of landscape gene, and the framework of spatial production analysis. The results show that: 1) Landscape genes identify the overall cultural features from multiple principles and multiple levels, and are also the process of induction and extraction of landscape symbols of traditional villages. 2) Huangdu Dong Cultural Village has transformed from a traditional farming village to a traditional village integrating culture and tourism through spatial coding, landscape restoration, and shaping of cultural, then constructed landscape symbols that meet the needs of multiple actors in terms of landscape, art, life, and location to realize the emotional connection and interaction of landscape symbols and the symbolization of landscape. 3) The promotional mechanism of tourism industrial development in Huangdu Dong Cultural Village connects the internal and external driving forces including resident cultural consciousness, tourism market demand, and government policy support to landscape symbol spatial production, then realizes the integration of modern multi-life demand functions and Dong folk culture, also promotes the spatial production of landscape symbols. Aiming for the activation and sustainable development of traditional villages, this study explored the process and mechanism of landscape symbol spatial production in order to provide scientific and practical references for the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese traditional culture.
Under the background of China's rural revitalization, improving visitors' attachment to rural tourism destinations has become an important path for rural areas to achieve sustainable development and revitalization. Therefore, this study examined the formation mechanism of visitors' place attachment in the context of China's rural tourism. Based on the literature of emotional solidarity and place attachment, perception of place warmth was considered the underlying mechanism for the effect of emotional solidarity on visitors' place attachment to rural destinations. Specifically, we hypothesized that: 1) visitors will show higher place attachment to rural areas when they perceive high emotional solidarity with the local residents (H1); 2) such an effect is mediated by higher perception of place warmth (H2); and 3) the effects of emotional solidarity on visitors' place attachment and place warmth will be mediated by visitors' self-construal. Compared with independent self-construal visitors, the perception of place warmth and rural attachment are more significantly affected by the emotional solidarity between interdependent self-construal visitors and rural residents (H3a and H3b). Three separate scenario imagination experiments were conducted to test the aforementioned hypotheses. Results from these experiments supported all hypotheses across scenarios. This study contributes to tourism scholarship by expanding the understanding of the causal relationship between the two important constructs of emotional solidarity and place attachment. We concluded that there exists a two-way causal relationship between emotional solidarity and place attachment depending on scenarios and subjects. This study also provides practical implications for rural destinations to improve visitors' attachment to the countryside with the help of emotional solidarity and rural warmth attributes.
Modern new media technology tools represented by Tiktok provide an important means for "New Farmer" to participate in rural cultural tourism and rural revitalization. However, existing research had paid little attention to the spatial distribution characteristics of this group, and there was a lack of reasonable and objective evaluation of the cultural tourism transformation potential of "New Farmer" anchors. Based on the data of Tiktok "New Farmer" anchors on the Chanmama website, this study comprehensively measured the rural cultural tourism transformation potential of "New Farmer" anchors from three aspects: directivity, recognition, and dissemination and used hotspot analysis to analyze the spatial differentiation of the characteristics of "New Farmer" anchors and their cultural tourism transformation potential. It further explored the cultural tourism driving mode of "New Farmer" anchors, revealing the regional differences in their cultural tourism transformation potential from a spatial perspective to provide a reference for better leveraging the cultural tourism driving capabilities of the "New Farmer" anchors. The results show that: 1) "New Farmer" anchors exhibited obvious characteristics of more in the south and fewer in the north, with more males and fewer females. There were significant differences in the spatial pattern of anchor scale and cultural tourism transformation potential, and the cultural tourism transformation potential of Henan and Shandong, was very limited. 2) The southwestern region, especially Sichuan and Chongqing, had prominent advantages in terms of the number and scale of "New Farmer" anchors, live streaming sales, and potential for cultural tourism transformation. 3) Less than 40% of ordinary media users had the potential for cultural tourism transformation. Although the number of "rural guardians" was limited, they brought significant potential for cultural tourism transformation. 4) There were significant regional differences in the advantageous characteristics of rural cultural tourism transformation potential. "New Farmer" anchors in the southwest had strong cultural tourism promotion concepts, and their short videos showed higher degree of direction towards cultural tourism content. The cultural and tourism videos in the southeastern region showed significant advantages in recognition and dissemination, and the content quality of cultural and tourism videos was even better. 5) The "New Farmer" anchors with different identities were different in terms of creative motivation, narrative mode, and narrative content. Their driving mode of cultural tourism could be divided into grassroots cadres-direct driving, rural guardians-indirect driving, and ordinary personal media users-potential driving. In general, Tiktok "New Farmer" anchors, characterized by individual creation, had played a significant role in breaking through the differences in the eastern, central, and western regions of China, and promoted equal development between the central and western regions and the eastern region. However, the significant differences between the south and the north and the limited potential for cultural tourism transformation still need further attention.
The main purpose of establishing a rural tourism demonstration county is to promote the development of rural economy and increase farmers' employment and income. In recent years, with the continuous expansion of rural tourism development scale, the sustainable development of regional social-ecological systems is threatened. Adaptation is one of the key components of a social-ecological system, which enables the system to respond to environmental changes and threats in advance, and make timely response to changes and threats. In this study, we took Wuyuan County and Ejin Horo Banner as the case study sites. First, based on the social-ecological system theory, an evaluation system of the effect of rural tourism demonstration counties was established, farmers and pastoralists in rural tourism areas were included in the evaluation as the main stakeholders of policy interests, and the external policy interference caused by the establishment of rural tourism demonstration counties was taken as the adaptive object. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used to comprehensively evaluate the effect on the adaptability of participation in tourism of farmers and pastoralists in rural tourism areas. Second, the case study sites were divided into two types: scenic spot-dependent type and ecological leisure agriculture type, and the farmers and pastoralists were divided into three types: tourism specialized type, tourism participating type, and pure farmers and pastoralists. The effects on the adaptability of participation in tourism of two types of rural tourist sites and three types of farmers and pastoralists were compared and evaluated. The results show that: 1) The overall effect of the establishment of rural tourism demonstration counties on the adaptability of farmer participation in tourism has reached a fair level. 2) The evaluation results of tourism adaptability of farmers and pastoralists dependent on scenic spots and ecological leisure agriculture are as follows: scenic spot-dependent > ecological leisure agriculture. 3) The evaluation results of the adaptability of tourism specialized, tourism participating, and pure farming and pastoral households' participation in tourism are as follows: tourism specialized > tourism participating > purely agricultural and pastoral households.
