Semi-Acquaintance Society in Rural Community-Based Tourism: Case Study of Moon Village, China

Taohong Li, Bo Wu, Ling Guo (), Hong Shi, Ning Chris Chen and C. Michael Hall
Additional contact information
Taohong Li: Business and Tourism School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Dujiangyan 611830, China
Bo Wu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611100, China
Ling Guo: Business and Tourism School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Dujiangyan 611830, China
Hong Shi: School of Tourism and History and Culture, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610093, China
Ning Chris Chen: Department of Management, Marketing & Tourism, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
C. Michael Hall: Department of Management, Marketing & Tourism, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: Tourism development provides a unique context for studying guanxi in acquaintance society in rural areas in China. Taking the case of Moon village from the perspective of guanxi , this study conducted a qualitative study to analyze the structural characteristics of the semi-acquaintance society in the tourism context. A buffer guanxi circle develops when strangers immerse themselves into an acquaintance-based society through social interaction, where affection and reasoning define the boundary, guanxi and the interests on which the social consensus is based, as well as the elite and collective actions vitalizing the community. These findings on how the semi-acquaintance society contributes to guanxi imply a co-governance structure for informal relations in governance in community-based rural tourism.

Keywords: semi-acquaintance society; community-based rural tourism; guanxi; community governance; Moon village (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/2071-1050/15/6/5000/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5000/ (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:6:p:5000-:d:1094314

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 ().