Thematic Evolution and Transmission Mechanisms of China’s Rural Tourism Policy: A Multi-Level Governance Framework for Sustainable Development

Haoqian Hu, Yifen Yin, Yingchong Xie, Jingwen Cai, Chunning Wang () and Wenshuo Zhang
Additional contact information
Haoqian Hu: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao 999078, China
Yifen Yin: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao 999078, China
Yingchong Xie: Xiamen Xiangyu Commodities Co., Ltd., Xiamen 361006, China
Jingwen Cai: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao 999078, China
Chunning Wang: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao 999078, China
Wenshuo Zhang: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao 999078, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-23

Abstract: Rural tourism is a key engine for sustainable development, elevated to a strategic level under China’s “Rural Revitalization Strategy”, creating a complex multi-level governance (MLG) policy system whose internal mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aims to analyze the thematic structure, spatio-temporal evolution, and transmission mechanisms of China’s rural tourism policy across central, provincial, and city/county levels. We applied BERTopic topic modeling and spatio-temporal analysis to a corpus of 1174 policy documents from 2005 to 2024. The results reveal a “centrally guided Type I governance” model with a clear functional division: the central level acts as a “top-level strategic designer”, the provincial level as a “key regional hub” for adaptation, and the city/county level as the “frontline of policy implementation”. We identified a vertical transmission chain characterized by a 1–2-year lag, alongside spatial differentiation driven by regional resource endowments at the provincial level and functional needs at the city/county level. This study concludes that China’s rural tourism governance framework is an efficient synergistic system that combines strong central guidance with dynamic local adaptation, providing empirical support for MLG theory in a unitary state and offering insights for optimizing policy coordination.

Keywords: rural tourism; sustainable development; multi-level governance; policy evolution; policy transmission; topic modeling; rural revitalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/20/9187/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/20/9187/ (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:17:y:2025:i:20:p:9187-:d:1772926

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 ().