Rural Tourism Experience Research Articles

A structural model of customer experience in rural tourism

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the diversification of agricultural management for development in rural tourism. Excellent service has been standardized in response to society becoming more service-oriented. However, the structure of customer evaluations of services in rural tourism and their association with customer satisfaction and customer delight remain under-investigated. Design/methodology/approach This study used survey data from the general consumer population in Japan and used SERVPERF to measure service quality post-service, focusing on rural tourism experiences. The author analyzed the mechanisms of service quality leading to customer satisfaction and value co-creation, and value co-creation leading to customer delight and the effects of customer delight compared with those of customer satisfaction, using structural equation modeling. Findings Enhancing services strongly influenced excellent services, which were considered to generate customer delight. Compared with customer satisfaction, customer delight was inferred to lead to higher customer loyalty. The results indicated that core services generated customer satisfaction, whereas enhancing services generated customer delight. Practical implications These findings provide important insights into the provision of services in rural tourism, which is becoming prevalent in society, and contribute to the diversification of agricultural management. Originality/value The originality of this study lies in the adoption of rural tourism to diversify farm management, revealing its structure as an experience that leads to customer delight through value co-creation. The author showed that customer experience as a form of value co-creation in rural tourism can lead to the creation of excellent services.

Analysis of MZ Generation's Participation Motives in Rural Experience Tourism Programs through Goal Framing Theory

Analysis of MZ Generation's Participation Motives in Rural Experience Tourism Programs through Goal Framing Theory

Who you travel with matters: the influence of intimacy experience on the stickiness of rural tourism activities – travel companion as the moderator

ABSTRACT This study examines the mediating effect of tourists’ perceived value between four dimensions of rural intimacy – physical, verbal, intellectual, and spiritual – and the stickiness of rural tourism activities It further scrutinises the moderating impact of travel companions, posing the pivotal question, ‘Who do you travel with matters the most?’ Analyzing a sample of 649 Chinese tourists, the research finds that each dimension of rural intimacy significantly enhance tourists’ perceived value and the stickiness of rural tourism. The study concludes that ‘growth-oriented’ intimate experiences are more effective in enhancing stickiness than ‘instrumental-oriented’ intimate experiences. The presence of friends as travel companions does not notably elevate tourists’ perceived value. In contrast, travelling with family, either with parents or children, substantially enhances tourists’ perceived value. Couples perceive increased value through verbal and spiritual intimacy. Tourists who travel alone gain heightened value and activity stickiness through verbal and intellectual interactions. These findings provide strategic insights for enhancing rural tourism experiences and strengthening customer engagement and loyalty.

Iranian children's memorable rural tourism experiences

Family traveling, especially to rural areas, may lead to appealing fun experiences for children and make them memorable. Memorable experiences of children from various aspects can be useful for policy makers and planners of destinations, parents and children. The effectiveness of travels and children's learning from traveling are among the most significant concerns of parents and tourism activists. So, identifying and understanding children's memorable experiences of traveling to rural areas of Iran that has various local cultures can influence filling such gaps as future destination planning, developing child-friendly rural destinations, family traveling, designing child-oriented tourism programs, and future generation's being loyal to local destinations. This study aimed to identify Iranian children’ memorable rural tourism experiences. The sample includes 37 children from ages 6 to 12. Interpretive phenomenology was used to conduct the study with the help of interviews and the analysis of the content of children's paintings. This study shows that children pay attention like adults to such elements as people, space, activities, objects, and social relations during their travel. Moreover, the conducted interviews resulted in 45 key notions categorized into 6 basic axes of memorable experiences: being exciting, being informative, being novel and unique, being gratifying, being socially involved, and negative experiences. This study provides insights on identifying and understanding the issues affecting the creation of memorable tourism experiences for children that travel to rural areas. The issues would help parents in taking child-oriented tourism travels, planners in designing child-friendly tourism destinations, and tourism service providers in delivering child friendly offerings.

A meta-analysis-based study of the effects of rural tourism activities on tourists’ physical and mental health

Abstract As a convenient and easily accessible green space place in the environment, the countryside provides people with the opportunity to get in touch with nature intimately, so in the process of this tourism experience, people’s health benefits have been more and more widely concerned by academia. Based on this, this study utilizes the questionnaire survey method and scientific experiments to conduct an in-depth exploration of the mechanism of the impact of rural tourism activities on the physical and mental health of tourists by taking tourists who have had rural tourism experiences as the research object. This paper derives the physical and mental health indicators of tourists before tourism based on the evaluation method of physiological indicators and the test method in psychology, proposes a perceptual measurement tool to study the obtained data of tourists’ state of mind, and concludes that after tourism, the overall mean values of tourists’ average heart rate, minimum heart rate, and maximum heart rate were reduced by 0.65 bpm, 3.28 bpm, and 7.5 bpm, respectively. The mean value of ventilation per minute was reduced by 1.11 L- min-1, indicating that there is a significant effect of different ages on the physical and mental health benefits of tourists. Tourists with tour time under half an hour had a poor state of mind, and tour time of 4 hours or more had the highest POMS index of 298, with a more favorable emotional state, indicating that there is also a significant effect of tour time length on tourists’ state of mind.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

Day by day sustainability is becoming more and more important, but as the current trends show, the role of sustainability has especially grown in rural tourism, where there are good opportunities to implement smart and energy-efficient technologies. The main purpose of the paper is to analyze what are the challenges of rural tourism, what are the trends now and what is the role of sustainability, which guarantees new opportunities and gives a competitive advantage to the regions. According to qualitative and quantitative research methods, the article highlights and studies the importance of sustainability in the context of rural tourism. The main idea of the article is to study what sustainable rural tourism means and why is it important, and it also studies the sustainable rural tourism concept itself and sustainable rural tourism experiences in Georgia and other foreign countries. To summarize, it can be said that sustainable rural tourism is one of the important trends of modern tourism and it can have a positive impact on regional development, too.

Factors Shaping Commitment and Resource Allocation in Managing Quality Tourism Destinations

The research aims at analyzing factors affecting the implementation of the quality tourism paradigm by tourism villages. A tourism village is a community-based tourism which offers a rural tourism experience. The research was carried out in the context of strategy formulation post-COVID-19 pandemic. The research specifically portrays the shifting paradigm from quantity to quality tourism development which takes place partly in response to the pandemic. There are concepts and theories taken from the marketing and human resource management, that is, the branding concept, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and the commitment theory to enrich tourism study. The research is quantitative-causal research. This study selected the research locus in the three tourism villages in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Data was collected through a survey. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results of this study show that: 1) Level of awareness, Perceived importance, and Influence of other stakeholders positively affect commitment. 2) Level of awareness and Perceived importance positively affect Resource allocation, 3) Influence of other stakeholders has no effect on Resource allocation, and 4) Commitment positively affects Resource allocation. The research results lead to strategies for managing community-based tourism destinations to offer a quality tourism experience.

The elements identification and model construction of rural tourism experience based on user-generated content

The elements identification and model construction of rural tourism experience based on user-generated content

Identifying Visual Quality of Rural Road Landscape Character by Using Public Preference and Heatmap Analysis in Sabak Bernam, Malaysia

The rural road landscape is crucial in forming rural areas’ landscape character (LC). As a platform for portraying the rural landscape, the rural roads demonstrate the area’s unique natural and cultural characteristics to visitors. However, with the continuous development of rural areas, the rural LC has been severely impacted, thus impacting visitors’ visual experience. In order to preserve and protect the rural landscape, this study aims to assess the visual quality of rural road landscapes based on public preference and heatmap analysis. The results indicated that most of the participants had a higher level of preference for rural landscapes with open horizontal views represented by agricultural areas, such as paddy fields. It was also found that different paddy field characters based on their planting stages can also positively affect the visual quality of rural road landscapes. The study also revealed that rural LCs with roadside settlements, commercial structures, mixed agricultural crops, and vegetation received low preference ratings. These characters negatively impact the visual quality of the rural road landscape. These findings provide significant insight for planners and decision-makers regarding protecting and preserving the essential rural road landscapes for the rural tourism experience.

Empowering people with visual disabilities through rural tourism: the benefits of nature activities and how the various travel constraints can be overcome

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to identify the main constraints faced by people with visual disabilities (PwVD) when visiting a rural destination, as well as the benefits sought through their participation in rural tourism. Furthermore, this study also intends to identify the main strategies used by PwVD to overcome the barriers encountered in rural destinations. A triangulation of qualitative methods was used to collect and analyse data, comprising various online forums and blogs posts related to the tourism experiences of PwVD, together with fifteen semi-structured interviews conducted with Portuguese PwVD. The results reveal that PwVD find rural destinations compelling and that they look for sensorial stimuli in nature as a means for self-development and relaxation, while the lack of public transport and accessible information dissuades PwVD from seeking rural tourism experiences. These constraints are often overcome with the use of various smartphone apps, the aid of travel companions, or the help of residents. Based on the results obtained in this study, a set of guidelines is proposed to improve the level of accessibility of rural tourism destinations, contributing to the empowerment of PwVD.

Assessing Rural Tourism Experiences: What Can We Learn from the Azores Region?

This research paper focused on tourists’ experiences after engaging in a rural tourism experience, the activities developed during that period, and the relevant factors they considered when planning the holidays. We collected data in the Azores, a region known to implement rural tourism. Therefore, the collected data were analyzed using mainly summary statistics, graphical representations, and exploratory data analysis methods, including the nonlinear (categorical) principal component analysis (CatPCA). The CatPCA’s objective is the same as that of the principal component analysis (PCA). We found that the landscape, adventure-related activities, and local gastronomy were some of the reasons tourists choose the Azores as a destination. The rural living experience and the local population’s welcoming traits were mentioned as factors that make tourists want to return to the Azores on holidays. Moreover, rural tourism in the Azores offers a unique opportunity to connect with the region’s rich cultural heritage. The islands have a long history shaped by centuries of settlement and the blending of various cultures, resulting in a distinct Azorean identity.

Rural landscape design strategy based on deep learning model

Abstract In order to scientifically allocate rural landscape resources, reasonably plan rural tourism space, and ensure that the local characteristics of the countryside are not homogenized when carrying out rural landscape design, this paper studies rural landscape design strategies based on deep learning models. The extreme learning machine algorithm, DBN-RBM algorithm model and the improved DBN-DELM algorithm are the main technical means to obtain research data and parameter calibration results for tourism planning and development work, and the rural planning direction and planning theme is determined through the rural landscape design pre-analysis work. The data show that the main motives of tourists’ rural experience tourism are close to nature 85.90% and leisure vacation 75%, followed by understanding culture 45.30%, novelty 30.70%, parent-child education 29.20%, health retreat 30.40%, and business meeting 5.90%. In this paper, the study of rural landscape planning and design can effectively alleviate the contradiction between people’s production and living and ecological environment and coordinate the benign development of rural and tourism elements in their respective spaces.

The influencing factors on service experiences in rural tourism: An integrated approach

The exploration of service experiences in rural tourism is an important area in tourism research because it concerns the comprehensive visit and stay in a rural area, encompassing various dimensions. The multidimensional nature of experiences in rural settings entails the need for a more integrated approach to analysis. This study thus explores the factors determining experiences in rural tourism by integrating the theory of planned behavior and servicescape theory. Chinese respondents (515) were recruited to assess the proposed model. Service experience was found to positively affect consumption intentions in rural tourism. These findings show that the servicescape has a significant effect on consumers' behavioral intention and actual behavior. Behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral controls positively affect rural tourists' actual behavior. This study proposes an innovative framework for capturing the specificities of ruralscapes and highlights the importance of partnerships between industry practitioners and local stakeholders in managing rural tourism experiences.

의사결정나무분석을 활용한 코로나19 이후 농촌관광객의 선호 특성 세분화 연구

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to explore and diagnose the characteristics and behavioural patterns of rural tourists after COVID-19 using decision tree analysis to classify and identify key segmentation groups.
 Design/methodology/approach - The CHAID algorithm was used as the analysis technique for the decision tree. The explanatory variables used in the analysis of each decision tree model were demographic variables and rural tourism usage behaviour and perception variables, and the target variables were the preferences of rural tourists' activities after COVID-19. From the Rural Tourism 2020 survey data, 614 samples with rural tourism experience were extracted and used in the analysis.
 Findings - The variables that significantly explained the preference for each type of rural tourism activity after COVID-19 were rural tourism safety perception, repeated visits to the region, rural tourism priority activity, rural tourism accommodation experience, gender, age group, marital status, occupation, and education level. Among them, rural tourism safety perception was the most important explanatory variable in each analysis model.
 Research implications or Originality - Overall, to promote rural tourism, it is necessary to enhance the safety image of rural tourism, strengthen loyalty programs for repeat visitors, and develop customized products that reflect the preferred trends of rural tourism.

What Drives Memorable Rural Tourism Experience: Evidence from Indonesian Travelers

This study aimed to examine the effect of Arousal on Memorable rural Tourism Experiences and social media trip sharing experiences that can moderate memorable rural tourism experiences and tourist behavioral intention. This research is quantitative research with SEM-PLS software. The technique of data collection is done by the survey method. The instrument for data collection is in the form of a questionnaire distributed online to 470 tourists who have visited tourist villages in Indonesia at least once a year. The results showed that all hypotheses could be accepted. The arousal variable significantly and positively affects the Memorable Tourism Experience. Authenticity, Entertainment, and Escapism variables significantly and positively affect Arousal. Memorable rural tourism experience variables significantly and positively affect Tourist Behavioral Intention, memorable rural tourism experience, and behavioral intention moderated by social media trip sharing experiences. The results of the study have implications for consideration for increasing sustainable tourism. As for the planning and development strategy of the domestic tourism industry, we can create sensational experiences and introduce sustainable travel themes to stimulate the desire for in-depth travel and to live in tourist destinations.

How does rural tourism experience affect green consumption in terms of memorable rural-based tourism experiences, connectedness to nature and environmental awareness?

This paper investigates the relationship between rural tourism experience and tourists' post-experience green consumption intention. This study is conducted with 345 respondents who have been to a rural destination for tourism purposes within the last five years. Results, employing Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, show that the dimensions of rural tourism experience (i.e. education, esthetic, entertainment, and escapism) positively affect memorable rural-based tourism experiences which also have a positive and significant influence on connectedness to nature. Connectedness to nature and environmental awareness both have statistically significant influences on tourists’ green consumption intentions later in life. The results indicate that better rural tourism experience can increase motivation for green consumption. Meanwhile, the results demonstrated the importance of memorable rural-based tourism experiences, connectedness to nature, and environmental awareness, which have been found to play full mediating roles in the lasting relation between rural tourism experience and green consumption.

Disintermediation and the role of DMCs: a new management strategy in rural tourism

PurposeThe Internet has encouraged rural tourism experience providers to develop a new management strategy that opts for disintermediation to access the market. In this context, incoming travel agencies (destination management companies [DMCs]), despite the local component, lose capacity to promote the rural tourism. The main question is what kind of relationship between stakeholders would enhance effective intermediation processes between them. The paper examines such constraints and limitations of existing relationships between small local rural tourism producers and DMCs.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Basque Country region of northern Spain as a case study, the authors used a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology based on semi-structured in-depth interviews and an online survey. The data analysis strategy used incorporated descriptive and exploratory factor analysis (EFA).FindingsIn this research, most of the tourism disintermediation factors identified in previous literature were reinforced when tested in the rural context. The results confirm that power, value, product differentiation, digitisation and stakeholder collaboration are key elements. The value provided in the international segment by DMCs, though, was found to be irrelevant.Originality/valueThis article contributes to filling a gap in the literature on rural tourism destination management from a holistic view of the destination understanding the business-to-business (B2B) relationship among stakeholders in rural tourism. This paper focuses on those elements that create value for local producers to sell the products through intermediaries and provides a framework for understanding the factors involved in value creation in rural tourism intermediation, which is applicable to further empirical studies and provides interesting managerial implications.

Destination Attributes of Memorable Chinese Rural Tourism Experiences: Impact on Positive Arousal, Memory and Behavioral Intention.

There is a lack of research on the composition of destination attributes of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) and their impact on tourist loyalty in Chinese rural tourism. Based on the extended SOR (stimulus-organism-response) theory, this study constructs a model of destination attributes (gastronomy, accommodation, physiography, and rural lifestyle) of MTEs on tourists' recommend intention and revisit intention under the chain mediating effect of positive arousal and memory in Chinese rural tourism. Through the judgment sampling method, this study distributed questionnaires to the subjects who met the sampling standard in all provincial administrative regions in China. Finally, 270 valid questionnaires from 29 provincial administrative regions were obtained and the proposed hypotheses were verified using a structural equation model. The results show that gastronomy, accommodation, physiography and rural lifestyle are all destination attributes of MTEs in Chinese rural tourism, and all have a positive impact on positive arousal. In addition, they are positively correlated with recommend intention and revisit intention through the chain mediating effect of positive arousal and memory. This study explored the impact mechanism of destination attributes of MTEs on tourist destination loyalty in the field of Chinese rural tourism to enrich findings pertaining to the study of MTEs in different contexts. Four destination attributes of MTEs were proposed and verified, and this study also confirmed that destination attributes of MTEs vary with respect to the research context. The new destination attribute of MTEs was discovered. The research results showed that managers can deliver MTEs to tourists through optimizing gastronomy, accommodation, physiography and rural lifestyle, thus generating positive arousal, deepening their memory and then gaining their loyalty. In addition, the extended SOR theory proved that it could effectively and comprehensively explain the influencing mechanism of MTEs on tourist loyalty.

농촌 민박 시설의 지각된 가치가 만족에 미치는 영향 : ‘체험 지향적 집단’과의 비교를 중심으로

It used to be considered that guests of rural home-stay are ‘experience-oriented’. But there could be varieties of segments among them. This study revealed that there is the difference of the effect of rural home-stay facility’s perceived value on the variety of satisfactions between the group of total visitors and the ‘experience-oriented’ segment. This finding of differences between these two groups addresses the implication that generalization of home-stay guests is not effective to respond to the needs of specific ‘experience oriented’ group. The research method was the path analysis of perceived value factors of rural home-stay visitors and their satisfaction of home-stay service, home-stay experience, and rural tourism experience of the area. However perceived value of ‘physical environment’ factor has most prominent effect on the variety of satisfactions regardless of groups or segments. For the ‘experience-oriented’ segment, perceived value of ‘tourism convenience’ factor has most prominent effect on the variety of satisfactions. For the group of total visitors, perceived value of ‘service quality’ factor have comparatively minor effect on ‘home-stay service satisfaction’. But in the rural areas it is difficult to supply proper human resources for the service. Therefore, especially for the segment of leisure and escapism, this study proposed to apply ‘untact’ service technologies to the rural home-stay management.

Antecedents of Rural Tourism Experience Memory: Tourists' Perceptions of Tourism Supply and Positive Emotions.

Tourism experiences bring about physical or psychological feelings in tourists, which can not only leave tourists with deep memories, but also affect their behavioral intentions. Tourism experiences are meaningful only if they can be remembered and influence word of mouth and decision making. A better understanding of what influences tourism experience memory will help optimize the supply and further development of tourism destinations. This study explores the antecedents of rural tourism experience memory from the tourism supply perspective, revealing the mechanism of effect of these antecedents on tourists' tourism experience memory formation through a questionnaire-based survey of 556 participants in Xidi Village, China, and correlation and multiple regression analyses. The results show that perceptions about the supply of rural tourism destinations trigger positive emotions that, in turn, affect the formation of rural tourism experience memory. Through the mediating role of positive emotions, there is a significant correlation between perception of rural tourism destination supply and the formation of rural tourism experience memories.