Sustainable Rural Tourism and Community Development

Dear Colleagues,

Rural tourism is a crucial element of the tourism industry. Rural tourism can provide travelers with opportunities to appreciate rural environments, authentic experiences, and local lifestyles. According to the World Tourism Organization, rural tourism refers to a wide range of tourism activities in which the visitor’s experience is related to products and services linked to nature-based activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle/culture, angling, and sightseeing. Rural tourism can include various types and forms, including agritourism, farm tourism, nature-based tourism, heritage tourism, and ecotourism. Given the nature and characteristics of rural tourism, sustainability is crucial to rural tourism development and management. The impact of rural tourism on local community development can be discussed in economic, social, and environmental frameworks. In addition, given the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand rural tourism stakeholders’ responses to it and how it has shaped rural tourism and travel behaviors.

We invite you to contribute to this Special Issue on “Sustainable Rural Tourism and Community Development”. We welcome conceptual/empirical research articles, comprehensive reviews, and case studies grounded in scientific research methods and innovative data analyses. Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer-review procedure with the aim of the rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Dr. SoJung Lee
Prof. Dr. Jichul Jang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.