Abstract
Rural tourism is emerging in the tourism industry; however, little is known about traveler behaviors at rural destinations. This study explored the role of cultural contact, natural atmospherics, and risk perception in generating destination involvement and approach behaviors for rural tourism in Inner Mongolia. A quantitative data analysis was used to obtain the research objective. Our findings showed that cultural contact and natural atmospherics significantly increased traveler destination involvement and their approach behaviors. Cultural contact included a stronger impact on destination involvement than natural atmospherics. In contrast, natural atmospherics contained a stronger influence on approach behaviors than cultural contact. In addition, rural traveler risk perception moderated the magnitude of the effect of cultural contact on approach behaviors. Overall, the proposed theoretical framework encompassed a sufficient level of anticipation power for involvement and approach behaviors. Our findings can be helpful for inventing rural tourism development strategies in Inner Mongolia.
Highlights
All values of composite reliability were above Hair et al [41] suggested cutoff of 0.70
Our findings showed that cultural contact among rural travelers increases their destination involvement and approach behaviors in line with this indication
The city is rich in tourism resources because of its unique natural atmospherics and ethnic cultural contact
Summary
The problems associated with an ageing population, out-migration, and traditional employment loss have geared up the economic decline [2]. Given this situation, it is often believed that tourism is an effective way of increasing economic activities in such areas [2]. Many rural destinations around the world are active in developing tourism for attaining economic recovery and social revitalization [1]. Rural tourism contributes to the local economy and social dynamic by offering various income-generating opportunities to residents [4]. The local government, tourism officials, and tourism practitioners in Inner Mongolia are eager to grow the rural tourism industry as a means of economic development and residents’ life
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