Exploring post-pandemic struggles and recoveries in the rural tourism based on Chinese situation: a perspective from the IAD framework

Abstract

Purpose The public health emergency of COVID-19 (Corona-virus disease) pandemic has greatly impacted tourism industry, especially in the rural tourism. This paper aims to study how rural tourism practitioners can get out of the mire of the pandemic. By analyzing the behaviors of various stakeholders and the logic of the impact of the pandemic, the behaviors of participants and future development were sorted out. The key elements that promote the recovery of rural tourism were discovered. Design/methodology/approach Based on the framework of institute analysis and development (IAD), this research selected six rural tourist communities in China as subjects for the studies. Based on the seven basic principles of hermeneutics and the inductive research method, following the analysis method of “first-order coding, second-order coding, aggregated dimensions,” the texts obtained through in-depth interview and work reports were analyzed and concepts were extracted. Findings The paper extracted 44 first-order concepts and 14 second-order concepts, and obtained 7 aggregation dimensions, including policy formulation and implementation, improvement of integrated marketing capabilities, improvement of tourism product quality, restrictions on rural tourism development, protection and optimization of environmental resources, industrial integration strategies and improvement of managerial and coordinating capabilities. During the pandemic, the government, enterprises and associations, as the service providers of rural tourism, can optimize the environmental resources and industrial resources of rural tourism by formulating policies, refining products and strengthening marketing in the action arena, to promote the industrial integration of rural tourism and provide better products and services for tourists. Originality/value This paper uses the IAD framework to study how rural tourism communities can successfully recover from the impact of the pandemic. It is found that the rapid recovery of rural tourism is the result of collective action. The core of establishing the collective action mechanism of rural tourism is consensus mechanism, co-construction mechanism and sharing mechanism. By studying the path and possibility of collective action of rural tourism communities, this paper explores the approach of multi-center governance of rural tourism communities to promote the imminent recovery of rural tourism.

Post-COVID Tourism Recovery Strategy for Tourism Villages: Multi-Stakeholder Participatory Approaches

“…Then, dancing indicators from Dwi et al (2021) about the involvement of several actors have been noted where the tourism villages of Kampung Santan and Lopati tourism village still need the involvement of government, private, and university actors to increase the development of these villages. Pan et al (2022) argued that the recovery of village tourism would significantly improve if there were collective action. In addition, Singh et al (2023) note that the multiple actors' engagement will grow capacity-building for a digital marketing strategy for village tourism; in this situation, the tourism village awareness groups are crucial.…”

“…This article examines the recovery strategies for tourism villages in Indonesia, especially in Bantul, Yogyakarta, after the COVID-19 pandemic, using a rural tourism resilience approach involving multi-stakeholder participation. Regarding the end of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit development sectors, including rural tourism (Kürüm Varolgüneş et al, 2022), it has made stakeholders try to get out of the mire of the pandemic (Pan et al, 2022), and they are struggling to develop and restore the existence of tourist villages in the post-pandemic (Flores et al, 2021;Li et al, 2022;Sari et al, 2022). In general, rural tourism is a phenomenon that has emerged significantly, involving the movement of people to rural areas to carry out certain activities (Belliggiano et al, 2021).…”

“…Many efforts must be made and improved, such as the need to increase the capacity of human resources that were previously sagging (Arintoko et al, 2020;Mulyani et al, 2022). Support from solid funding sources is needed, which was previously minimal and not optimal during a pandemic (Hamdani & Fauzia, 2022;Pan et al, 2022). Government support is needed to provide public infrastructure facilities (Dasan et al, 2022;Lin et al, 2022;Wisroni et al, 2021).…”

“…Yang & Zhu (2021) reported that tourist villages were reselling tourist village tickets through an online system. Then, Pan et al (2022) viewed the tourist villages' presence as improving product quality and integrating tourism marketing. Furthermore, Nugroho et al (2022) observed tourist villages that could not improve human resources for the management of village tourism.…”

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on consumer mobility and recovery from a distance perspective: a mobile phone data application

“…It includes assessing one’s own abilities to perform protective behaviors and the feasibility as well as costs of doing so (Floyd et al , 2000). During the pandemic, tourism businesses and organizations have developed and implemented health protocols in compliance with government regulations and guidelines in place to ensure the safety of both staff and travelers (Pan et al , 2022). As a result, the perceived risks and drawbacks of traveling have decreased, while the perceived benefits of traveling have become more prominent.…”