Farmers’ Livelihood Adaptability in Rural Tourism Destinations: An Evaluation Study of Rural Revitalization in China

Huiqin Li, Tinghong Guo, Peter Nijkamp, Xuelian Xie and Jingjing Liu
Additional contact information
Huiqin Li: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Tinghong Guo: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Xuelian Xie: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Jingjing Liu: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-16

Abstract: Rural tourism is one of the important ways to achieve rural revitalization and one of the choices for farmers to improve their viability. Therefore, the socio-ecological systems (SES) analysis framework and obstacle factor analysis can provide a new perspective for the evaluation of farmers’ behavior adaptation processes. In order to test the adaptation mechanisms of farmers’ lives in rural tourism destinations, we applied this analysis framework to Ying-Tao-Gou Village in China. The study found that the livelihood adaptation strategies of local farmers can be divided into the categories of “tourism livelihood”, “part-time livelihood”, “worker livelihood”, and “farming livelihood”. The livelihood adaptation of local farmers presented a relatively balanced picture. There were significant differences in the livelihood adaptability of different types of farmers, but tourism farmers had the strongest livelihood adaptability. There were various barriers to the livelihood adaptation of different types of farmers, such as household savings and education level. Finally, to improve the adaptability of farmers’ livelihoods, amendments can be made in policy formulation, tourism development, and by the farmers themselves. This study is of great significance for the government in formulating policies to improve people’s livelihoods, to stimulate the vitality of rural development, and to accelerate the development of rural revitalization.

Keywords: rural tourism; farmers’ livelihood; adaptive evaluation; obstacle factor model; the village of Ying-Tao-Gou (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9544/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9544/ (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:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9544-:d:446131

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 ().