The spatial mobility of rural tourism workforce: A case study from the micro analytical perspective

Abstract

The touristic movement has been focused generally while the spatial mobility of the tourism workforce was overlooked. To make up this research gap, the paper conducted in-depth interviews, questionnaire survey, and nonparticipatory observations with rural tourism employees at Baisha village in Zhejiang province, east China. It sought to analyze the demographic characteristics and explore the spatial mobility pattern of the tourism workforce. Although rural tourism plays an important role in job promotion in the study area, tourism employment was still partial to male, young, and low-skilled workforce, and its performance was overestimated in Chinese practice. Evidence on the watershed distance (12–20 km) of their spatial mobility was found based on the empirical analysis and statistics. Then, Push and Pull Model (PPM) was introduced to illustrate the mechanism behind this spatial mobility pattern. The Spatial Enclosure Effect was put up to deeply understand the spatial finiteness of rural tourism employment promotion, in order to help local make scientific decision on rural tourism. Finally, enlightenments of those findings were discussed under the backgrounds of rural revitalization program to improve the efficiency of rural tourism development in China. And applicability and limitation were also discussed deeply.