In the context of rural revitalization, the modernization of tourism community governance has become a key factor in advancing agricultural and rural modernization and achieving comprehensive revitalization. The governance of rural tourist communities is not only an important part of achieving effective rural governance, but also a core issue for achieving the goal of rural revitalization. In the new era, rural tourist communities governance shows the characteristics of multi-subject participation and multiple value functions. Its significant changes include the prominent position of villagers, the prosperity of rural cultural construction, the prominent concept of green governance, and the intelligent transformation of governance modes. However, the governance of rural tourist communities is facing many challenges, such as the existence of governance gap, the constraints of theoretical difficulties, and the troubles of practical problems, which seriously affect the sustainable development of rural tourist communities. This paper explores the theoretical mechanism and path exploration of the modernization of rural tourist community governance under the perspective of rural revitalization. The research finds that: (1) the construction of the governance system of rural tourist communities is the foundation of governance modernization, covering the integration of governance elements, structural construction, and institutional improvement. (2) Building a governance community and achieving the joint governance of multiple subjects is the essential requirement of rural tourist community governance. (3) The governance of rural tourist communities faces problems in many aspects such as system, culture, fairness, and environmental protection, and effective measures need to be taken to cope with them. (4) The focus and tasks of rural tourist community governance should focus on four aspects: system, technology, culture, and talent, in order to improve the effectiveness of governance and the vitality of community development. Through the research, we can not only further deepen the theoretical explanation of the relevant issues of the modernization of rural tourist community governance under the vision of rural revitalization, but also provide decision - making references for relevant managers to formulate industrial policies and development strategies, and help to effectively promote the rural revitalization strategy and the modernization of the governance system and capacity of rural tourist communities.
Rural tourism community governance has been widely recognized as a critical pathway to advance high-quality rural tourism development and facilitate rural revitalization in China. In this article, knowledge graph analysis tools are used to explore the research progress of rural tourism community governance. Research has found that: (1) the findings reveal three distinct evolutionary phases: theoretical application and localized emergence, mechanism deconstruction and practical exploration, system integration and paradigm shift, demonstrating progressive expansion in conceptual depth and disciplinary boundaries. (2) Existing research primarily adopts case-based empirical methods to validate the practical application of community governance theory in rural tourism contexts. (3) Furthermore, the study stematically identifies four key research themes: impacts of residents’ perceptions and behaviors on governance effectiveness, multi-stakeholder participation models, cultural-ecological preservation strategies, and sustainable development objectives, collectively forming an “impact-model-path-objective” empirical research framework. In response to existing limitations in the literature, such as regional biases in research objects, insufficient evaluation of governance effectiveness, and gaps in methodological innovation and interdisciplinary integration, thereby offering insights into research trends and academic innovations pertaining to the topic. Consequently, future research should prioritize the following aspects: (1) strengthening complex governance thinking and overcome regional biases and paradigm limitations, (2) promoting methodological integration and innovation, with a focus on multi-source data utilization and digital ethics, (3) deepening interdisciplinary collaboration mechanisms to construct dynamic knowledge production systems, (4) responding to national strategic needs and refine the theoretical framework for rural governance in China, (5) enhancing global academic dialogue and broaden the civilizational exchange dimension of governance research.
Value co-creation is an effective means to promote the establishment of trust, feedback and co-operation mechanisms between endogenous actors such as government and residents, and exogenous entities such as tourists and enterprises in rural tourism community governance. Taking Huanglongxian Village and Longxiang Shuangfan Village in Jiangning District, Nanjing, as case studies, this paper explores the process and mechanisms of value co-creation between endogenous actors and exogenous entities in rural tourism community governance by using qualitative research and content analysis. The results show that: (1) innovative concepts such as information, platforms, and services from traditional value co-creation theories have entered the governance process of rural tourism communities through the interaction between endogenous actors and exogenous entities, and innovate the tourism village governance model in the process of value chain formation and value delivery. (2) The value delivery axis of “co-anticipation - co-construction - co-enjoyment” exists in the process of value co-creation of community residents, consumers and enterprises, which is reflected in the interaction of spatial strategies, co-creation needs and governance results of different value subjects, as well as the identification and practice of transforming the use of rural resources for tourism. (3) The mechanism of value co-creation between endogenous actors and exogenous entities lies in the participatory transmission of value chain and the innovation of governance models within rural tourism communities during the rural revitalization process. This promotes spatial production with high-quality in rural tourism. Tourists, as new participants in community governance, inherit and develop the value connotations of the tourism community. Thus, rural tourism initiatives should concentrate on value transformation capacity of tourists and community residents, digital marketing and platform construction, and encourage more subjects to spontaneously participate in governance.
. Tourism development in ethnic areas promotes the interaction and exchange and intermingling between communities and the outside world. Taking Skula Town in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan as a case area, the study uses gounded theory and fsQCA (Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis) to construct an analytical model of tourism promoting the ‘three connections’ of ethnicity (interaction, communication and integration), and to reveal the configuration of various factors affecting the perceptions of ethnic integration. The results discovered that the antecedent conditions show significant complexity and heterogeneity. (1) Women with low education, young and high income hold a positive attitude towards ethnic integration; (2) High-quality tourism activities and benefits significantly improve residents’ perception of ethnic integration; (3) When men with low education level achieve higher income and actively participate in tourism activities, they hold a positive attitude towards the benefits brought by tourism, maintain high-quality interaction with tourists, and form a positive perception of ethnic integration. The results of this study emphasize that the positive output of tourism activities and tourism benefits is an essential basis for promoting ethnic interaction, communication, and integration and helps to build an interactive system based on cultural sharing, material sharing, and a sense of Chinese national community. It provides a new perspective and empirical support for deepening tourism development in ethnic areas and promoting ethnic integration.
Rural tourism development is a complex system involving multiple subjects of interest, and social organisations can play a coordinating role in the process of evolutionary game. By constructing a tripartite game model of the government, tourism enterprises and community residents, and selecting the equilibrium point where social organisations play a coordinating role, we find that: (1) the strategic combination of government support, cooperation of tourism enterprises and participation of community residents is the optimal choice of rural tourism development, but it is difficult to realise the in-depth cooperation spontaneously between the government, tourism enterprises and community residents due to the differences in interests, and we have to rely on the coordination role of social organisations; (2) The coordinating role of social organisations can be measured by the feedback coefficient, and its effectiveness is affected by the degree of support from the policy environment as well as the relevance and effectiveness of their own coordinating services; (3) As the key regulators and balancers of interests, social organisations can play a coordinating role by advocating and implementing policies, facilitating the exchange of information and cooperation, guiding the enterprises to rationally distribute benefits, and enhancing the awareness of community participation to promote consensus and cooperation among the government, tourism enterprises and community residents, to regulate the behaviour of all parties, and to optimize the overall rural tourism development environment.
Rural tourism elites play a crucial role in promoting the sustainable development of rural tourism and facilitating rural revitalization. Based on self-determination theory, this study explores the influence of public service motivation among rural tourism elites on community citizenship behavior, and analyzes the mediating effect of felt obligation within this influence process, as well as the moderating effect of organizational support within the overall influence mechanism. The results indicate that: (1) public service motivation has a positive impact on community citizenship behavior. (2) Felt obligation partially mediates the relationship between public service motivation and community citizenship behavior. This is evidenced by the positive effect of public service motivation on felt obligation, which in turn positively affects community citizenship behavior. (3) Organizational support moderates both the direct relationship between public service motivation and felt obligation, and the mediated pathway through felt obligation to community citizenship behavior. When organizational support is higher, the effect of public service motivation on community citizenship behavior is weaker, whereas its positive effect on felt obligation is stronger. In addition to enriching the literature in the field of public service motivation, this study provides useful insights for the management of rural tourism elites.
Multi-subject cooperative participation in community governance is an effective path to promote the modernization of national grassroots governance, but the non-tourism practitioners in tourism communities have not yet aroused academic attention. This study adopts a perspective of the administrative service quality in community government, based on the trust transfer theory, and analyses 302 questionnaires using PLS-SEM method, and constructs and verifies the “perceived quality of administrative service-trust in government administrative service-trust in government development of tourism” and “willingness to value co-creation”, and investigates the effects of perceived quality of administrative service on trust in government administrative services and trust in government development of tourism, as well as the effects of the two types of governmental trust on their willingness to co-create tourism values among non-tourism practitioners. The results show that: (1) the perceived quality of administrative service exerts a significant positive impact on the trust in government administrative service of non-tourism practitioners. (2) Trust in government administrative service has a significant positive effect on the trust in government development of tourism, and tourism knowledge positively moderates this relationship. (3) Trust in government administrative service only has a significant positive impact on the value co-creative intention toward the community. Trust in government development of tourism has positive impacts on the value co-creation intention toward communities and the value co-creation intention toward tourists. Two types of trust in government play a chain mediating role between the perceived quality of administrative service and two types of value co-creation intention. The paper emphasizes the differentiation and attention to different types of residents in tourism communities. And it reveals the formation path of trust in government and value co-creation intention of non-tourism practitioners in tourism communities, which is of guiding significance to the practice of governance in tourism communities.
Rural residents, as the target group and key participants in the governance of tourism destinations, play a crucial role in the sustainable development of local tourism through their support for policies. Taking the well-known ancient town Huangyao as an example, this study integrates social exchange theory to unveil the mechanism of rural residents’ support for tourism policies through qualitative research methods. The results indicated that: (1) six variables influence how rural residents support tourism policies: exogenous variables include policy interpretation; endogenous variables include past experiences, policy participation, and perceptions of the benefits of tourism; and policy conditions include stability and adaptability. There are three components of rural residents’ support for tourism policies, including policy cognition, policy emotion and policy behavior intention. (2) The generating process of rural residents’ support for tourism policies can be divided into three stages, including risk assessment, attempted exchange and order stabilization. After a collision and integration of interests, the exchange relationship between local inhabitants and government departments is rebuilt. (3) The mechanism of rural residents’ support for tourism policies shows a cross-stage transition from “resistance- attempted cooperation-rational gaming”, with each stage following the logic of “policy cognition-policy emotion-policy behavioral intention-new policy cognition”. The study suggests taking into account the significance of rural residents' objections to the policies, and advocates policy-implementing organizations to shift their focus from simply completing policies to tackling the real challenges faced by tourism destinations.
Women are the main force to inherit the farming civilization and participate in the community governance of agricultural heritage sites, but they are also the most neglected party in the discourse system. Taking the dry-farming Shiyan terrace system in Shexian, Hebei Province, a globally important agricultural cultural heritage site, as an example, as an example, the paper analyzes how women in agricultural heritage sites achieve their place identity construction in the process of participating in social participation, under the cognitive-emotional-behavioural framework by means of field research and grounded theory. The study found that: (1) The generation of the ambient field is a direct factor that promotes women’s participation in social organizations in agricultural heritage sites. (2) Through the re-understanding of heritage values and the re-expression of local meanings, heritageisation becomes a key force driving the generation of women's place identities in agricultural heritage sites. (3) Place identity is internalized in women’s self-identity, which is manifested in the re-recognition of women’s value and the awakening of gender consciousness. (4) Behavioural feedback of women’s place identity in agricultural heritage sites includes ecological interaction and heritage inheritance. Place identity is emotionally driven by women’s participation in community governance in agricultural heritage areas, and community participation shapes the process of constructing women’s place identity.
Under the external disturbances of tourism activities, traditional villages constantly adjust their resilience to achieve a new dynamic balance in society, economy, culture, and ecology. Based on the adaptive cycle theory and the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC), this study takes Wulin traditional village in Jinjiang city as an example, and employs literature analysis, field investigation, weighted TOPSIS and other methods to explore the cyclical differences in the resilience level and response mechanism of the social-ecological system of tourism-oriented traditional villages. The results show that: (1) there are significant cyclical differences in the resilience level of social-ecological system of traditional villages, and the overall resilience level shows a stepwise upward trend, which is consistent with the characteristics and stage curves of resilience evolution and development from the perspective of adaptive cycle theory. (2) The growth rate of resilience in various dimensions of traditional villages varies at different stages of their life cycle. The growth of resilience shows a trend of slow first and then fast, while adaptability shows a constant upward trend. Therefore, the transformation ability has the fastest growth rate and the largest change in magnitude. (3) The resilience response mechanism of villages at different life-cycle stages is also different, presenting characteristics of “exploration stage-resistance ability”,“initiation stage-adaptability” and “development stage-transform ability”. This study enriches the explanation of disturbance-state-response theory, initially reveals the evolutionary process of traditional village’ adaptation, and provides strategic references for the sustainable development of traditional villages.
As an important component of environmental governance in ethnic villages, human settlements governance has the generality of rural governance and the uniqueness in ethnic villages. Taking Jinuo Village in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province as a case study, this paper attempts to explore the multi-collaborative governance mechanism of human settlements in ethnic tourism villages from the perspective of symbiosis theory, relying on the first-hand data obtained from in-depth interviews and the second-hand data obtained through the online + offline channels using the method of the grounded theory. The results show that: (1) the government, enterprises, villagers and tourists constitute the symbiotic unit of the governance of the human settlements in Jinuo Village, and are the main force to realize the coordinated development of the village tourism industry and environmental governance. (2) The formulation of rules and regulations, the support of governance funds and the belief of national culture are important components of the symbiotic environment of Jinuo Village human settlements governance, which shape the cognition, values and action logic of the main body of Jinuo Village human settlements governance. (3) The environmental needs of villagers, the experience needs of tourists, and the environmental interests of stakeholders constitute the symbiotic interface of Jinuo Village human settlements governance, and the dynamic changes of the three promote the continuous adjustment of the governance mechanism of Jinuo Village human settlements. (4) As a spatial carrier of multiple subjects such as government, enterprises, villagers, and tourists, the benefit of relevant subjects is the key to promote the formation of a multi-collaborative governance mechanism for village human settlements.
Under the background of rural revitalisation strategy, the soundscapes of traditional villages serve as a critical dimension for perceiving spatial contexts and reflecting the efficacy of scenic benefits. This plays a paramount role in driving rural revitalization efforts. Focusing on Huangdu Village, this study employs a robust methodology, including method of semantic differential, questionnaire surveys, and factor analysis, constructs a research framework for studying soundscapes in tourism-oriented traditional villages, aiming at exploring their roles in enhancing the attractiveness of tourism and promoting the sustainable development of the villages. The findings indicate that Huangdu Village’s soundscapes is a unique local culture, exemplified by life sounds that create a sense of place, ecological sounds embodying therapeutic qualities, the production sounds encapsulating associative connotations, and complex sounds that transmit harmonious scenarios while delineating the spatial environment. Nevertheless, challenges exist within the village, such as the homogenization of local sentiments in life sounds, the deterioration of therapeutic sensations in ecological sounds, the formalization of associative sentiments in production sounds, and the ambiguity of spatial and harmonious perceptions in complex sounds. The study proposes targeted strategies to address these issues, including sound borrowing, sound masking adjustment, sound supplementation enrichment, and comprehensive utilization for diverse soundscapes, with a view to achieving effective protection and optimization of the acoustic landscape of Huangdu Village, thus promoting the comprehensive enhancement of traditional village landscapes and the profound integration of the cultural tourism industry and supporting rural revitalization endeavors.
Digital transformation has emerged as a pivotal path for the upgrading of rural homestays, holding profound significance for homestays to adapt to technological changes in the digital era, enhance service quality and efficiency, and bolster their market competitiveness. Based on the case investigation of rural homestays in some areas of Zhejiang Province, this paper uses Gioia inductive topic analysis method to analyze the influencing factors and action mechanisms in the digital transformation of rural homestays. The results show that: (1) the impetus of digital transformation, such as ease of digital technology and usefulness of digital technology, is the external technological driving force of homestays’ digital transformation. The ease of technology encourages homestays to judge the usefulness of technology. Digital transformation resistance, such as the high cost of digital platforms and the difficulty of monetizing digital platforms, constitutes external technical obstacles, and the choice of digital transformation is based on rational consideration of pros and cons. (2) In addition to external technical factors, homestays’ digital transformation is also affected by the response of tourists’ demand and the impact of market crisis, which is the external market driving force of the digital transformation. (3) External factors such as technology and market encourage managers to improve their digital capabilities, such as strengthening digital management capabilities and promoting digital marketing capabilities, which become the internal driving force for homestays’ digital transformation. (4) In the process of digital transformation, the talent support force such as digital talent demand and digital talent training, as well as the policy support force such as expecting digital support and giving digital support as internal and external regulatory factors jointly promote homestays’ digital transformation. The conclusions enhance the theoretical explanation of influencing factors of rural homestays’ digital transformation, not only enrich the theoretical achievements of rural homestay and expand the application scenarios of digital transformation, but also provide the practical direction for promoting the digital transformation of rural homestay, and help realize the goal of digital countryside and rural revitalization.
As a unique form of rural tourism, analyzing the relationship between the concentration of amenities agglomeration and tourists' emotions in traditional villages can help to enhance the tourism experience and provide support for tourism development decisions. From the perspective of tourists’ perception, with the help of grounded theory to construct the types of amenities in traditional villages, using location entropy, emotion value calculation, Getis-Ord Gi*, and gray correlation analysis methods to explore the influence of traditional village amenities agglomeration on tourists’ perception. The results show that: (1) the types of amenities in traditional villages consist of cultural, ecological, industrial, talent, and organizational amenities. (2) The number of traditional villages with a high concentration of ecological amenities is the largest in the positive emotional hotspots and negative emotional cold spots; while the number of traditional villages with a high concentration of industrial amenities is the largest in the positive emotional cold spots and negative emotional hotspots. (3) In counties where cultural, talent, and organizational amenities are agglomerated, positive emotions are mainly distributed in cold spots, and negative emotions are mainly distributed in hot spots, while in counties where ecological amenities are agglomerated, the distribution of emotions has the opposite characteristics; in counties where industrial amenities are agglomerated, both positive and negative emotions are mainly distributed in hot spots. (4) There is a strong correlation between the agglomeration of traditional village amenities and the tourists’ positive and negative emotions, cultural and industrial amenities are the main factors influencing the tourists’ positive and negative emotions. Based on the spatial characteristics of tourists’ emotions, the study puts forward suggestions for development from the perspectives of encouraging development, suitable development, stable development, and inapplicable development, providing a reference for the protection and sustainable development of traditional villages.
