Sustainable Livelihood Capital and Strategy in Rural Tourism Households: A Seasonality Perspective

Zhen Su,Joshua R Aaron,Yang Guan,Hongchen Wang

doi:10.3390/su11184833

Zhen Su, Joshua R Aaron + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11184833

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Abstract

As an inherent characteristic and pervasive market phenomenon of the tourism industry, seasonality plays an important role in tourist business survivability and sustainability. It is also a significant factor for rural households involved in tourism as they plan their livelihood strategies around it. In this study, household surveys were conducted in The Beautiful South, an area for rural tourism in Guangxi of Southern China. We analyzed the livelihood capital and strategy of different household types in response to seasonal fluctuations in tourism by applying a mixed method that integrated livelihood capital index (LCI) evaluation and data envelopment analysis. The results indicate that LCI of tourism income-oriented households ranks second among the four types of households, while the LCI of tourism-engaged households in peak season performed better than that of those not engaged. However, the number of households participating in tourism nearly halved during the off season, and they are mainly diverted to temporary labor work, which may be one of the reasons for the low livelihood capital efficiency of tourism households. The implications of the findings and empirical solutions to mitigate the negative seasonal impact are discussed.

Highlights

As a multifaceted activity, tourism positively impacts rural communities [1]
Livelihood is usually investigated at the household level [8] and can be defined as the combination of multiple assets and activities which contribute to the income of local residents [9]
The UK Department for International Development developed a Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) that has been widely used as an analytical tool [11,12,13]

Summary

Introduction

Tourism positively impacts rural communities [1]. For underdeveloped rural areas rich in tourism resources, tourism is a source of economic development and employment opportunities [2,3]. Changes in rural areas in light of economic needs and poverty alleviation have caused many rural households to incorporate tourism into their livelihood strategy [3,4,5,6]. Based on the SLF, empirical studies on sustainable livelihood in the tourism sector, focusing on the impact of tourism on households’ livelihoods, have increased [14,15,16,17,18]. Many case studies have shown that rural households can enhance livelihood sustainability by adopting a series of livelihood strategies and multiple livelihood activities [19,20]

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