Abstract
China’s countryside is rich in cultural heritage. It is an important engine for rural development and revitalization. How to improve the tourists’ satisfaction with their aesthetic experience, raise the revisit rate and loyalty, and provide new methods and ideas for re-understanding the tourism experience is a topic worth discussing. This study chose Zoumatang Village in Ningbo, China, as the research target, and explored the important factors affecting tourists’ satisfaction with the aesthetic experience of their visit. Through a literature review and eight experts applying the Delphi method, this paper develops a framework of important criteria for the Zoumatang Village aesthetic experience. It then ranks their importance and causal relationships using the DEMATEL-based ANP method. It also combines 16 important factors for tourist satisfaction to explore improvement measures. The research results show that pleasure is the most critical factor of the aesthetic experience offered by Zoumatang Village with interactivity, variety, associability, sociability, and stewardship as factors that need to be improved given that naturalness lies at the heart of tourists’ aesthetic experience. The evaluation model of this study can provide a reference for improving the aesthetic experience of Zoumatang Village in particular, and the research methods and ideas for rural tourism development planning and integrated marketing in general. The findings can be used when investigating aesthetic experience, questionnaire making, and evaluation optimization related to tourism.
Highlights
China’s countryside is rich in cultural heritage
The remaining problems include: What are the main key factors that affect satisfaction with the rural aesthetic experience in China? What is the relationship between rural aesthetic experience factors? What is the difference between the evaluation criteria for the rural aesthetic experience and the general tourism aesthetic experience? Which innovations does this study propose for the evaluation criteria of rural aesthetic experience?
The literature review shows that presently, academics pay more attention to the hierarchy, connotation and role of aesthetic experience, but qualitative research is the main focus, while a small amount of empirical research focuses on the sensory aspect of aesthetic experience
Summary
China’s countryside is rich in cultural heritage. It is a tourist place combining leisure and education and an important engine for rural development and revitalization [1].The implementation of the new countryside policies, including beautiful countryside, characteristic towns, and rural revitalization, has ushered in new opportunities for rural revival. It is a tourist place combining leisure and education and an important engine for rural development and revitalization [1]. According to the existing literature, tourists hope to break away from the isolation of cities, seek practicality, meet psychological needs, enhance self-actualization and strengthen social interaction [3], verify their own lifestyle and status [4], pursue novelty, broaden their horizons, relax, enjoy natural scenery, exercise and keep fit [5], experience local food, nostalgia [6], and look for “land plots” and “home plots” [7] through rural tourism to maximize pleasant [8] and novel experiences [9]. The rise of research into aesthetic experience in China’s tourism research began in the early 1990s [12].
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