Search Results (18)

Using ArcGIS software to conduct spatial autocorrelation analysis, it was found that the price distribution of rural homestays in Suzhou is not random but shows apparent spatial clustering. Among the 81 rural homestays were 9 high-high clusters, 25 low-low clusters, 1 high-low outlier, and 5 low-high outliers. The hedonic price model is an economic model that breaks down goods or services into multiple attributes to estimate their prices. Based on this model, this paper further investigates the differentiated impacts and interactions between internal accommodation characteristics and external environmental attributes in the pricing mechanism of rural homestays in Suzhou. The results show that (1) the high-priced rural homestays in Suzhou are concentrated in the lake island resort with good natural environment and perfect infrastructure; (2) the location, facility quality, and network score of rural homestays have a positive impact on housing prices; (3) the parking lot of rural homestays hurts housing prices; (4) the quality of rural residential buildings and facilities has the most significant positive impact on housing prices. By comparing the hedonic price model of rural homestay and the heterogeneous preferences of consumers, this study provides rural homestay operators with effective room pricing strategies and marketing implications, provides policymakers with reference factors to promote the development of rural homestay industry, and has specific guiding significance for the sustainable development of the homestay industry. Full article

Rural homestays have emerged as pivotal drivers of rural socioeconomic revitalization, particularly in metropolitan peripheries characterized by intensified urban–rural dynamics. However, their spatiotemporal distribution patterns and underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. This study employs Geodetector and related analytical methods to examine rural homestays in Beijing, aiming to decipher spatial heterogeneity and driving factors. The results reveal a distinct “large-scale dispersion with small-scale clustering” pattern marked by pronounced agglomeration in northern mountainous areas and sparse distributions in southern suburban regions. Temporally, the sector currently exhibits a notable expansion–contraction phase influenced by external factors, alongside spatial centroid migration toward resource-rich zones. Geodetector quantification identifies the proximity to transportation nodes and vegetation coverage as primary spatial determinants, while socioeconomic factors demonstrate comparatively limited influence—contrasting sharply with urban contexts. Rural homestay concentration zones are classified into high-, medium-, and low-intensity categories based on the homestay density, with high-intensity zones leveraging apex advantages of scenic resources, cultural heritage, and infrastructure. These findings underscore the interplay of natural environmental factors, tourism resources, transportation accessibility, and socioeconomic conditions in shaping agglomeration dynamics, providing actionable insights for optimizing spatial planning and promoting sustainable development in rural regions adjacent to megacities. Full article

Tourists’ mental health risk perceptions have a crucial impact on destination management organizations and other tourism practitioners. As an important support for rural tourism, the mental health risk perception of rural homestay tourists requires further attention from researchers to promote the sustainable development of the rural homestay industry. Based on the structural equation model and AMOS, this study considers the rural homestay industry as the background, explores the relationship between the mental health risk perception of rural homestay tourists under the COVID-19 pandemic, emotional solidarity between tourists and operators, and tourists’ willingness to revisit, and analyzes the differences in tourist groups with different infection frequencies. In this study, questionnaires were randomly distributed to the tourists of rural hotels in Nanjing. 740 questionnaires were collected and 666 valid questionnaires were recovered. The results show that tourists’ mental health risk perception has a significant negative effect on tourists’ willingness to revisit. However, tourists’ mental health risk perception effectively promoted emotional solidarity between tourists and operators, and thus significantly improved tourists’ willingness to revisit, in which emotional unity was the mediating variable. There were significant differences in tourists’ willingness to visit after different infection frequencies. The willingness of tourists to risk being infected with the virus was more significantly affected by their mental health risk perception and emotional solidarity. Full article

As the development of world-class eco-islands progresses, the homestay sector on Chongming Island has burgeoned, emerging as a pivotal catalyst for rural tourism and economic prosperity. This study, leveraging Chongming Island as a case study, systematically analyzes the spatiotemporal distribution of homestays across island-wide, township, and village scales, employing methodologies such as the spatiotemporal evolutionary tree model. It delves into the intricate systemic framework underpinning homestay development, elucidating the dynamics of interaction mechanisms. Furthermore, it examines the evolving roles of diverse stakeholders throughout various developmental phases, grounded in stakeholder theory. The study reveals that (1) Chongming’s homestays on the island, townships, and village scales show very obvious agglomeration characteristics, mainly concentrated in the A-level scenic spots and in and out of the island traffic junction. (2) The growth of homestays in Chongming shows an increasing trend year by year, with the growth rate slowing down after 2020, and can be divided into four main phases, which are closely related to the construction phase of the eco-island. (3) The evolution of Chongming Island’s homestay is a multifaceted natural–human system intricately shaped by a confluence of five interdependent subsystems: natural ecology, social culture, multiple stakeholders, geographical location, and transport infrastructure. At different stages of development, under the synergistic effect of multiple stakeholders, the homestays on Chongming Island eventually formed a governance structure led by the government and co-managed by the development company, external entrepreneurs, and local villagers. These insights not only augment the scholarly discourse on stakeholder dynamics within the homestay industry but also offer pragmatic enlightenment for strategic planning and the advancement of holistic urban–rural integration in Chongming and the broader Shanghai region. Full article

The mental fatigue of rural homestay operators is of great significance to their performance as well as the sustainability of the rural tourism industry. Mental fatigue is a state of mind caused by consistently demanding cognitive activities. The mental health of rural homestay operators has been severely hit during the COVID-19, and they are in urgent need of finding a path to recovery. Based on value co-creation theory, this paper explores how rural homestay operators’ mental fatigue affects their performance under the moderating effects of government support and tourists’ participation. We conducted a questionnaire survey in the 19 rural tourist destinations of Nanjing, China, and collected a total of 201 questionnaires from the homestay operators. The results reveal that the operators’ mental fatigue has a negative effect on the performance of rural homestays. What’s more, tourists’ participation could moderate the relationship between operators’ mental fatigue and their performance. Although the moderating effects of government support are not significant, they can influence operators’ performance directly and indirectly. Through the value co-creation of operators, tourists, and government with the aim of improving the performance value of the rural homestay co-creation process, the operators’ mental fatigue could be alleviated and their performance restored. These findings can help us explore the recovery mechanism of rural homestays and promote the sustainable development of rural tourism in the post-COVID-19 period. Full article

Leisure agriculture is a crucial carrier for city agriculture and tourism growth. This study aims to explore the overall leisure agriculture and different types of leisure agriculture spatial sub-characteristics and their influencing factors. Taking the city of Xi’an, China, as an example, leisure agriculture was classified into four types: agritainments, agricultural parks, resorts, and rural homestays. According to this study, two ring zones and one core belt zone for leisure agriculture in Xi’an are dispersed unevenly and aggregated. Furthermore, geographic detectors and spatial principal components were employed as empirical techniques to investigate the primary factors influencing the spatial distribution of multiple leisure agriculture heterogeneity. The results about the influence mechanism indicate that the gross domestic product, population density, and accessibility to transportation dominated the overall spatial distribution, while the distance to scenic spots and water areas had a significant impact on the spatial distribution of some types. This research contributes to the reconstruction of leisure agriculture and promotes the sustainable development of agriculture and recreation by merging leisure agriculture spatial resources. Full article

It is necessary to analyze the entrepreneurial performance mechanism of rural homestays to improve farmers’ incomes under the strategy of rural revitalization in China. This study constructs a mechanism model, in which place identity and social capital are antecedent variables and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is an intermediary variable. Three hundred and fifty five valid samples were collected from rural homestayers in suburban areas of Beijing. A structural equation modelling by Mplus was conducted for path-analysis and also a mediating effects test to verity the theoretical model. The results demonstrate that place identity has no significant effect on entrepreneurial performance, while social capital and entrepreneurial self-efficacy do have. In fact, place identity and social capital have significant positive effects on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a complete mediating role in the relationship between place identity and farmers’ entrepreneurial performance, and a partial mediating role in the relationship between social capital and farmers’ entrepreneurial performance. Under the background of rural revitalization, the conclusions of this study provide a theoretical basis for improving the farmer’s entrepreneurial performance and have certain practical management significance. Full article

Until recent decades, labour-intensive subsistence farming was a way of life and livelihood in the hill communities of Uttarakhand, India. However, the nature of agriculture falls far short of the expectations of the main labour force, the rural youth, leading to their mass migration to non-agricultural occupations. The large-scale youth migration has left many hill farming landscapes depopulated and farmlands abandoned. As youth have special stakes in food systems, they must be included in the sustainable transformation of food systems. By doing so, the migration-prone hill region may be transformed into a place where rural youth have more options for work and income. Therefore, the agriculture sector needs to change and develop into a more engaging and youthful workplace. There are opportunities to explore and barriers to be removed. Besides identifying priority research areas on local food systems, in this exploratory research, we investigate opportunities to involve rural young people in the transformation of the food system. We document information by conducting focus group discussion (FGD) meetings in about 100 villages in the Uttarakhand hills, representing all major farming landscapes. This study mainly focuses on improving the production and consumption aspects of local food, which not only benefits the health and wellbeing of local communities but also has many positive economic, social, and environmental effects. In addition, we explore opportunities for reviving mountain agriculture through agri-ecotourism, which is a symbiotic relationship between tourism and agriculture. Making home- or farm stays in agri-ecotourism a subsistence strategy for local youth will contribute to a more prosperous rural economy. Recognising Uttarakhand’s rich culture and heritage while exploring the culinary travel opportunities in homestays will provide opportunities to focus more on traditional food systems, exposing various tangible and intangible aspects of the host region’s food culture to tourists. The findings of this study will aid in identifying specific policy issues for consideration by planners and policymakers at the local and state levels. Additionally, this exploratory study will assist young, motivated researchers in conducting follow-up, in-depth investigations and producing empirical data in their specialised fields. Full article

Given the high importance of the performance of rural homestays to the local economy, this study aims to fill the gap in homestay performance research and make rural homestays more competitive and sustainable after the coronavirus disease epidemic (COVID-19). Integrating a consistent linguistic fuzzy preference relations-based analytic network process (CLFPR-based ANP) and a fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), this study constructs a comprehensive evaluation model of the performance of rural homestays and empirically analyzes homestay performance in Zhejiang. The results show the following: (1) Among the criteria’s weights by CLFPR-based ANP, homestay operation and management, service quality, and homestay geist and community co-prosperity should be given much more attention; the importance of factors regarding the environment and building of rural homestays is gradually weakening. (2) In light of ranking alternatives based on performance evaluation by fuzzy TOPSIS, the homestay with the optimal performance has been found, which practitioners can use as a benchmark. Therefore, the priorities of these criteria further deepen the understanding of the performance of rural homestays and underline the development direction for practitioners. Simultaneously, in terms of feasibility and reliability, the integrated approach comprises a beneficial attempt and becomes an effective evaluation tool for practitioners to improve effectiveness. Full article

Rural homestay inns are an important part of rural tourism, and tourists’ support behavior intentions are important factors affecting whether rural homestay inns can be developed sustainably. The local authentic life experiences and realization of actual communication between the host and tourists are the main influencing factors for tourists to revisit, recommend, or provide support. Although previous studies have confirmed the influence of authenticity perception on tourists’ support behavior intentions from different perspectives, they have not analyzed the influence mechanism between them from the perspective of micro interpersonal emotional attitude. To further understand the impact mechanism between the two, this study introduces the variable of emotional solidarity; constructs a relationship model of authenticity perception, emotional solidarity, and tourists’ support behavior intentions by adopting the theory of reasoned action; and verifies the established hypotheses through empirical analysis. The results show that both existential authenticity and objective authenticity positively influence tourism support behavior intentions, and the effect of objective authenticity on tourism support behavior intentions is greater than that of the presence of authenticity. Empathic understanding, feeling welcome, and emotional intimacy all play mediating roles between intrapersonal authenticity perception and tourism support behavior intentions. Findings also show empathic understanding and feeling welcome play mediating roles in objective authenticity perception and between the perception of objective authenticity and tourism support behavior intentions. Suggestions are also proposed for the development of homestay inn enterprises. Full article

As an emerging business form of tourism development, homestays also play an important role in China’s rural revitalization and tourism transformation and upgrading, and has attracted increasing social attention. At present, Chongqing is the city with the largest number of homestays in China. Taking Chongqing as a case-study area, based on the homestay data of the Baidu map, this paper comprehensively uses the methods of spatial analysis, multiple regression and geographical weighted regression to thoroughly analyze the regional characteristics and influencing factors of homestay distribution in Chongqing. The results show that: (1) the nearest-neighbor index R of homestay distributions in Chongqing and all regions is one, which shows an obvious agglomeration type. (2) In addition to being highly concentrated in the central urban area, three secondary high-density areas are also formed in the surrounding areas of the central urban area, and there is a trend of concentration and contiguity. The spatial distribution densities of the two urban agglomerations in Southeast and Northeast Chongqing are very low, and the overall distributions are extremely uneven. (3) The factors, such as tourism resource endowment, economic development, service industry development, traffic location, consumption demand and social development conditions, have significant impacts on the distribution pattern of homestays, and the impacts of each factor on the layout of homestays has obvious spatial heterogeneity. Analyzing and revealing the temporal and spatial characteristics and dynamic mechanism of homestays has an important theoretical value and practical significance for better serving the new urbanization plan and implementing the strategy of urban–rural integration and rural revitalization. Full article

As a rural tourism product, homestays play an essential role in sustainability. The operation of homestay business is directly linked to the success or failure of community-based tourism development. By taking rural homestay business in Zhejiang as a research object, the paper aims to clarify the interrelationships among influencing factors in the operation of rural homestay business from a performance perspective. Based on multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques, this paper not only constructed the evaluation system of homestay business in the Chinese context by the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM), but also disclosed the interrelationships of criteria and aspects by a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and the DEMATEL-based analytical network process (DANP). Results show that: (1) 5 aspects and 31 criteria comprise the evaluation system of homestay business, (2) the aspects and criteria with high global weight are nearly clustered into the effect group, (3) the weight of service quality and homestay geist and community co-prosperity as the rank top two, (4) more than these, hardware facilities construct the product features of homestays because of the role of driving elements, (5) owing to the core elements, criteria about operational efficiency become guiding principles of homestay business, and (6) service quality and integrated utilization of socio-cultural resources underpin the sustainable development of homestay business in the long run. Therefore, the interrelationships of aspects and criteria provide further insights and underline the focus on homestay business for practitioners. At the same time, these serve as an effective administration tool for industry administrations. These will lay a solid foundation to enhance the level of homestay business and boost the sustainable development of community-based tourism. Full article

With the development of China’s national economy from the middle- and low-income stages to the middle- and high-income stages, the function of homesteads has undergone a significant evolution. Clarifying the evolution laws, characteristics, and dynamic mechanisms of various functions of homesteads can provide a basis for revitalizing the use of idle homesteads and promoting rural economic development. It can also provide theoretical guidance for implementing the Rural Revitalization Strategy. This paper uses statistical data and household survey data to establish a theoretical analytical framework for the functional evolution of rural homesteads under the background of changes in national economic-income levels. This study adopts comprehensive index model evaluation methods, participatory rural assessments, and participatory rural-mapping methods. This study reveals the characteristics and driving mechanism of the functional evolution of homesteads at different stages of economic development in China and verifies it from a microscale through typical rural homestay villages. The results show that the functional evolution of rural homesteads in China has apparent stages. In the middle- and low-income stages, the basic functions of the rural homestead are the living function, agricultural-production function, and social-security function. In the middle- and high-income stages, the living function, the nonagricultural-production function, and the asset function are the main functions. The functional evolution of rural homesteads is driven by both macro and micro factors. The multifunctional use of rural homesteads can fully activate the use rights of homesteads, realize the appreciation of the functional value of rural homestead assets, and provide primary power for rural social and economic development. Furthermore, it can play an essential role in China crossing the “middle-income trap”. The research results provide evidence for understanding the functional evolution law of rural homesteads and contribute to the rural geography of multifunctionality. Full article

Due to the beautiful rural scenery, rural tourism has gradually become a popular trend as affected by urbanization in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to develop an objective and systematic evaluation model for homestay selection in Taiwan. Specifically, this study combines three fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making (FMCDM) methods of means-end chain (MEC), fuzzy decision making and trial evaluation laboratory (FDEMATEL), and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). First, we use MEC to obtain important factors for homestay travelers to choose homestays, then we extract key influencing factors by FDEMATEL method, and finally, we rank these factors in importance by FAHP to provide travelers and managers with a reference. In addition, this study combines fuzzy theory to avoid the bias caused by human subjective judgment, so as to solve the problem of objectivity in the selection and evaluation model of homestay criteria. According to the results of our case studies, a clean environment, professional service staff, safe facilities and beautiful buildings are the key factors for consumers to choose homestays. The results of this study can provide a reference for homestay managers to understand the priorities of travelers and optimize customer service in Taiwan. Full article

China’s social and economic development is in a critical period of transition. With the implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy, new rural industries and new formats have developed rapidly. Profound changes have taken place in the human–land relationship, population structure, industrial structure, and rural functions in the vast rural areas, which have a huge impact on the function and value of rural homesteads. The functional evolution of rural homesteads has a strong driving effect on the change of function value of the homestead. The functional value of rural homesteads is affected by the social and economic development conditions, location, resource endowment, land use policy, rural land trading market, the development of new industries and new formats, and the evolution of homestead function; different homestead functions have different values, especially in the non-agricultural production function and asset function of the homestead. To revitalize the idle and inefficient use of the homestead and fully manifest its value when the homestead is transferred or withdrawn, it is necessary to scientifically calculate the homestead value according to the principle of “what function is lost and what value is compensated”. This paper adopts basic geographic data, rural land transaction data, and social and economic data, and it uses participatory rural appraisal, the land estimation method, and the comparative analysis method. According to the classic theory of “structure determines function and function determines value” in systems engineering, the equivalent substitution method and market value method are used to measure and compare the functional values of traditional agricultural villages and tourist homestay villages before and after the functional evolution. The results show that (1) the leading functional evolution of homestead landlords is closely related to the level of social and economic development. The change in the functional value of the homestead presents the same law as the evolution of its leading function. (2) The functional evolution of the homestead has a strong driving effect on its value change. The increase in value caused by the functional evolution of homesteads in homestay villages is significantly higher than that in traditional agricultural villages. (3) The functional value of the homestead is affected by the social economy, location, resource endowment, land use policy, rural land trading market, business development, and the functional evolution of the homestead. (4) It is suggested that the state formulates the compensation standard for voluntary and paid withdrawal of homesteads according to the “functional value theory of homesteads”, to reduce the unfair value compensation caused by location differences. Full article