Residents’ attitudes toward land lease for rural tourism

Abstract

Residents’ attitudes toward land lease are a crucial factor in the success of tourism development, especially in developing countries like China, where land lease has emerged as a significant means for developers to obtain rural land for tourism purposes. Nevertheless, the absence of longitudinal field research, which could offer more profound insights into residents’ attitudes compared to cross-sectional studies, contributes to the persistent “attitude-behavior gap” in sustainable tourism. Using a field research method and taking Longtan Village in China as a typical case, this study focuses on changes in residents’ attitudes toward land lease and the mechanism underlying these changes. The findings show that Longtan residents’ attitudes toward land lease for tourism development changed from “anxiety and collective objection” to “ambivalence and individual differences” and finally to “expectation and collective support”. Residents’ attitudes were determined by the transaction risk arising from the conflict between formal and informal institutions in the context of social transformation. The findings provide implications for tourism managers to achieve the sustainable development of tourist destinations in developing countries.