Measurement of rural tourism integration and influencing factors: A case study of Qianshan City in the Dabie Mountains

Abstract

Integrated rural tourism aims at realizing the sustainable development of rural areas, and improving the integration of rural tourism is of far- reaching significance for rural revitalization and sustainable tourism. Based on the Western framework of integrated rural tourism research and combined with existing research and the development of rural areas in China, this study constructed a rural tourism integration evaluation indicator system composed of 29 indicators covering 6 dimensions of network, scale, empowerment, endogeneity, embeddedness, and complementarity. Using the ArcGIS spatial visualization tool, geographically weighted regression analysis, and geographical detectors, this study analyzed the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural tourism integration level and influencing factors in Qianshan City of the Dabie Mountains. The results show that: 1) There are obvious spatial differences in the level of rural tourism integration in Qianshan City. The level of rural tourism integration in the southern part of the city is significantly higher than that in the northern part. There is great potential for the improvement of rural tourism integration in the sample villages. 2) The development of rural tourism is weakly linked to the "beautiful countryside" program, and the phenomenon of "beautiful hollow villages" is a key barrier to enhancing rural tourism integration in the city. 3) Tourism development stage, resource support type, and rural economic development level are the dominant factors that influence the spatial differentiation of the level of rural tourism integration in Qianshan City. Interactions between the influencing factors enhance the spatial differentiation of rural tourism integration. Integrated rural tourism is a tourism development model that realizes value co-creation and comprehensive benefits. The results of this research may provide some theoretical guidance and practical reference for the high-quality development of rural tourism, and promote the improvement and development of integrated rural tourism theory