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.
Cultural tourism has received widespread attention for its role in promoting cultural heritage and economic growth. However, there is insufficient research regarding how to verify the synergy between culture and tourism and how to ensure its sustainability in the integration of the cultural and tourism industries (CTI). This study establishes an interdisciplinary composite analytical framework from the perspective of efficiency evaluation. China, a country that has advocated the integration of CTI since 2009, is the research setting. The findings indicate that the technical efficiency of the tourism industry has increased significantly since the involvement of the cultural industry. Meanwhile, economically underdeveloped regions have opportunities to catch up with developed regions in terms of technical efficiency, and they perform better in terms of sustainable productivity growth. Importantly, U-shaped and inverted U-shaped curves were found in the coordinate systems composed of groups comprising the coupling coordination degree and the efficiency-related index, respectively. This finding reveals the existence of a running-in effect in the integration process of CTI, thereby contributing to both theory and policy-making.Sustainability 2019, 11, 6607 2 of 20 arts, design, fashion, new media)" [8]. Thus, currently, the integration of culture and tourism is spreading and is omnipresent, and destinations rich in cultural and tourism resources usually have a high degree of consistency or overlap in the market [1,9,10]. Exploring and evaluating the synergy between culture and tourism is conducive to enhancing theoretical understanding, promoting joint marketing, and inspiring policy-making. However, there is still insufficient research regarding how to verify this synergy and how best to sustain it during the integration of the culture and tourism industries (CTI). Quantitative research in the related field only focuses on a single sector from an efficiency evaluation perspective [11][12][13] or on the degree of coupling coordination between them [14]; it is still rare to regard culture and tourism as industries and explore the synergy between them from an interdisciplinary point of view.By regarding the CTI together as a complete system or black box, in this study we established a composite evaluation framework consisting of three dimensions from the perspective of efficiency evaluation, to measure the technical efficiency, sustainable productivity growth, and coupling coordination degree. Specifically, the slacks-based measure (SBM) model of data envelopment analysis (DEA), the Malmquist index of total factor productivity (TFP), and the coupling coordination degree model were applied in the research. We further examined the impact of the cultural industry on efficiency and compared the relationships between various outcomes.This study utilized data from 31 Chinese provinces and regions from 2010 to 2016. There are several reasons why China is an ideal setting to study these issues. First, China is one of the world'...
The thesis creatively applied DEA in evaluating the efficiency of innovation and entrepreneurship education towards 24 schools of the case university in China, the results show that the input and output of innovation and entrepreneurship education are valid only in a few schools, while the efficiency still has a space of improvement in most of the schools; based on the division of disciplines, schools of sciences shows obvious advantages in efficiency compared with schools of arts, mainly because of the higher PTE. Based on further subdivision of the schools, schools of engineering and agricultural science show higher TE, while TE in schools of sciences and schools of humanities and social sciences are relatively lower.
Even though seasonality is an important concern in tourism research, only a few scholars have focused on the seasonality of rural tourism. Therefore, this study examines seasonality in rural tourism destinations. We adopt a mixed research approach to explore the sustainable livelihoods of households in rural tourism destinations from a seasonality perspective, using the case of rural tourism destinations in Yulong River basin, Guangxi, China. First, in-depth interviews and grounded theory are used to construct a sustainable livelihood model for households in rural tourism destinations under the influence of seasonality. Second, the model is tested using the data envelopment analysis model and statistical analysis. We find that (1) psychological capital, a previously neglected livelihood capital, is an important component of rural households’ livelihood capital in rural tourism destinations under the influence of seasonality; (2) rural tourism does not significantly improve rural livelihoods due to seasonal influences; and (3) participating in tourism work in the off-season and combining it with other work practices are the main livelihood strategies of rural households to cope with seasonality; however, over-dispersing resources reduces the livelihood efficiency. This study’s findings will prove useful for policy formation by governments to deal with seasonality in rural tourism.
This study constructed a quantitative index system evaluating the level of livelihood sustainability of rural households in ethnic tourist villages and identified the main livelihood risks these households encountered. This was achieved by modifying the sustainable livelihood framework proposed by the Department for International Development (DFID) and testing it on three typical ethnic tourist villages in Guangxi, China (Jinkeng, Ping’an Zhuang, and Chengyang Eight). The results showed that the overall livelihood sustainability index was relatively poor. Livelihood assets and transforming structures and processes were the main factors that restricted the sustainability of household livelihoods. Social capital and financial capital values were lowest out of six types of livelihood capital examined. The lack of community participation of households adversely impacted the score of transforming structures and processes. Households encountered various livelihood risks. Generally, the livelihood issues that concerned most households were market, social, and education risks. However, when the farmers were enquired about a single risk that worried them the most, market, financial, and employment risks ranked the highest. Through quantifying the sustainability and risk of rural household livelihoods, guidelines and subsidies could be allocated to promote rural revitalization.
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