The Impacts of Heritage Conservation and Tourism Development on the Community Well‐Being of Agricultural Heritage Sites From Sustainable Development Perspective

Menghan Wang, Arie Stoffelen, Ming Ming Su, Mengzhen Zhang and Jiayu Wang

Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 33, issue S1, 182-201

Abstract: This study explores how agricultural heritage conservation and tourism development affect community well‐being from a sustainable development perspective. This paper uses a mixed‐methods case study of the Ziquejie terrace in Hunan Province, China, to analyze the spatio‐temporal characteristics of community well‐being in heritage tourism sites. By integrating spatial and temporal analyses of residents' subjective and objective well‐being across four villages, we conceptualize community well‐being as a dynamic socio‐spatial process. Data were collected through surveys and interviews, capturing six dimensions of well‐being: economic, social and relational, education, health, environment, and conservation and development dimensions. The results found that tourism development elicits more varied and sensitive responses from residents than heritage conservation, especially in areas with higher tourism intensity. Notably, villages with higher levels of well‐being perceived tourism and heritage conservation as negatively affecting certain well‐being dimensions. These findings put forward policy implications including the need for rural development policies to proactively and contextually address the complex and sometimes counterintuitive interplay between community well‐being, heritage conservation, and tourism development.

Date: 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70004

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:s1:p:182-201

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