Rural Tourism Households Adapting to Seasonality: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study

Zhen Su, Kun Xian, Dandan Lu (), Wenhui Wang, Yinghong Zheng and Tanaporn Khotphat
Additional contact information
Zhen Su: Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Guangxi University, No. 100 East Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, China
Kun Xian: Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Guangxi University, No. 100 East Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, China
Dandan Lu: Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanning 530008, China
Wenhui Wang: Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Guangxi University, No. 100 East Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, China
Yinghong Zheng: Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Guangxi University, No. 100 East Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, China
Tanaporn Khotphat: Airline Business Program, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Suan Dusit University, Bangkok 10300, Thailand

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-19

Abstract: The inherent vulnerability of tourism poses a substantial challenge to maintaining the productivity and stability of livelihoods among rural tourism households. Although tourism seasonality significantly influences the livelihood activities of rural tourism households, research exploring how they adapt their livelihood strategies to achieve optimal outcomes is limited. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design that combines thematic analysis and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we investigated the relationship between the livelihood strategies and outcomes of rural tourism households under the influence of tourism seasonality in the Lijiang scenic spot of China. The results indicate that livelihood strategies adopted by rural tourism households include “Tourism Persistence”, “Seasonal Employment”, and “Seasonal Farming” during the off-season and “Extending Working Hours”, “Increasing Staffing Input”, and “Increasing Capital Input” during the peak season. Furthermore, these strategies form flexible combinations to realize livelihood outcomes, with “Extending Working Hours” being a necessary condition. The findings also revealed that the four configurations of seasonal livelihood strategies in the two patterns significantly contributed to high livelihood outcomes. One is named “Peak-Season Driven Pattern”; the other is named “Peak-Off Blend-Driven Pattern”. These findings provide theoretical and practical insights for sustainable livelihood research.

Keywords: rural tourism; tourism seasonality; sustainable livelihood; thematic analysis; fsQCA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14158/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14158/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14158-:d:1247131

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().