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• Published: 13 May 2024

The influence of rural tourism landscape perception on tourists’ revisit intentions—a case study in Nangou village, China

• Yuxiao Kou 1 &
• Xiaojie Xue 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  620 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Environmental studies

Rural tourism development has an important impact on optimizing the rural industrial structure and stimulating local economic growth. China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy has promoted the development of rural tourism nationwide and emphasized Chinese characteristics in the process of local development. Based on the theoretical analysis of landscape perception, this article uses the external Landscape Perception→Satisfaction→Revisit Intention influence path as a theoretical research framework to construct a structural equation model to analyze the willingness of tourists to revisit rural tourism destinations. We selected Nangou Village, Yan’an City, Shaanxi Province, as a key model village for rural revitalization, and conducted an empirical analysis. The empirical analysis results show that landscape perception has a significant positive impact on satisfaction and revisit intention. Tourist satisfaction has a significant positive impact on revisit intention and plays an intermediary role between landscape perception and revisit intention. The five dimensions of natural ecology, historical culture, leisure recreation, research experience, and integral route under landscape perception are all significantly positively correlated with revisit intention, with historical culture and integral route having the greatest impact on landscape perception. The survey about Nangou Village verifies the relationship between landscape perception, satisfaction, and tourists’ revisit intention. Based on the objective data analysis results, this study puts forward suggestions for optimizing Nangou Village’s tourism landscapes and improving tourists’ willingness to revisit from three aspects: deeply excavating rural historical and cultural resources, shaping the national red culture brand, and creating rural tourism boutique routes. It is hoped that the quantitative research method of landscape perception theory in Nangou Village can also provide a reference and inspiration for similar rural tourism planning.

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Introduction.

Rural tourism, which originated in Europe in the mid-19th century (He, 2003 ), has constructed a new type of urban–rural relationship—the attachment of the cities to the countryside and the integration of the countryside with the city (Liu, 2018 ). In the 1990s, with the continuous improvement of China’s urbanization level, rural tourism began to rise in response to the demand for returning to nature and simplicity (Guo and Han, 2010 ). The main body of rural tourism (i.e., the main target) is urban residents, and its object is a combination of enjoying the agricultural ecological environment, agricultural production activities, and traditional folk customs. These are presented through tourism industry planning and landscape product design, which is based on the unique production, life, and ecological resources in the countryside, and integrates sightseeing, participation, leisure, vacation, recuperation, entertainment, shopping, and other tourism activities (Zhang, 2006 ).

Rural tourism development is of great significance for optimizing the industrial structure in rural areas, realizing the linked development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, increasing farmers’ income, stimulating rural economic development, and accelerating the integration of urban and rural areas (Lu et al., 2019 ). Since the implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy, China has taken increasing rural tourism as one of the important ways to achieve it (Yin and Li, 2018 ) and has launched construction projects nationwide.

Rural tourism in China started with self-organized agritainment, with farming experiences and sightseeing leisure as the main projects (Guo et al., 2000 ). Early studies have found that rural tourism projects embodying regional characteristics, folklore, and participatory farming activities present stronger competitive advantages in terms of higher rates of tourists’ participation and revisit rates (Wang et al., 2005 ). In the process of the “localization” of rural tourism in China, rural tourism has undergone a top-down evolution. Since the central government’s comprehensive deployment of new rural construction in 2006, national departments and local governments have issued a series of policies to promote the development of rural tourism, leisure agriculture, and culture, which have promoted the prosperity of diversified, high-quality, and distinctive practices of rural tourism nationwide (Ma et al., 2007 ). The rural revitalization strategy is a crucial national policy at present in China, driving various initiatives such as the construction of beautiful countryside and the development of the rural tourism industry. This policy has given rise to trends like the inheritance of local culture, the promotion of green ecological concepts, and the integration of industries. However, there are still challenges encountered, such as the homogenization in tourism development and the necessity to coordinate the development of industries, culture, ecology, and economy. Under the policy guidance of developing the agricultural economy and revitalizing national culture, China has explored rural tourism landscape products that fit the national cultural context and market demand of the country. Its characteristics are mainly reflected at two levels: First, it focuses on the integration of ethnic and regional cultural perspectives. Rural tourism planning focuses on identifying geographical cultural aspects (Sun et al., 2008 ), integrating traditional Chinese red culture and local characteristics (Huang, 2003 ) into tourism landscape products, and creating Chinese cultural brands. Second, we should focus on upgrading traditional sightseeing, farming, folk customs, and leisure tourism projects, develop in-depth experiential research projects, and create a comprehensive boutique tourism route (Chen et al., 2021 ).

With the prosperity of rural tourism, the related research has gradually increased. Zhai ( 2015 ) pointed out that unique cultural and geographical landscapes are not only objects that should be emphasized and protected in the construction of the countryside but also important resources for the development of rural tourism. Zhang and Wang ( 2018 ) believed that the essence of rural tourism is the cultural experience of tourists in the countryside. Chen ( 2020 ) studied the “local sentiment” from an anthropological perspective as an important factor in promoting the development of China’s rural tourism market. Xu and Tang ( 2016 ) argued that local characteristics are essential for rural landscape construction, proposing the planning and construction strategy of “livability, suitability for industry, suitability for tourism, and suitability for culture”. Shi ( 2021 ) pointed out the significance of ecological esthetics theory to the planning and design of rural tourism landscapes and proposed the strategy of integrating local characteristics with ecological features and improving the ecosystems through artistic techniques. Most of the research has focused on the development and upgrading strategies of Chinese rural tourism landscapes from the supply-side perspective but lacks studies on what kind of experience and value tourists expect from the demand-side perspective, and the research methods lack scientific quantitative analyses.

Satisfaction and revisit intention are used to evaluate the perception and experience of rural landscapes, which directly reflect tourists’ actual feelings about the resource endowment, operational management effectiveness, social and cultural environment, and rural landscape planning in the area (Zhang et al., 2014 ). Landscape perception emphasizes the mutual influence of tourists’ perception of the tourism environment (Echtner and Ritchie, 1993 ), recognition of the location (Middleton and Hawkins, 1998 ), preferences (Zhang et al., 2017 ), and other aspects, while the revisit intention reflects tourists’ willingness to experience an activity again (Xu et al., 2014 ). Strengthening tourists’ revisit intention in rural tourism is of great significance for stabilizing and increasing rural income and promoting sustainable development in rural areas. It is an important measure of whether the quality and style of rural areas have been improved and whether rural revitalization has been promoted (Li et al., 2022 ). Therefore, based on the objective data analysis results of tourists’ perception and satisfaction with rural tourism landscapes and their revisit intention, we can objectively and reasonably propose upgrading and optimization strategies for rural landscapes. The relationship diagram is shown in Fig. 1 .

The figure illustrates the interaction between subject and object in rural tourism.

This study selected Nangou Village in Yan’an City, Shaanxi Province, as the research object. Based on the construction of traditional rural tourism facilities, Nangou Village has developed a certain number of distinctive tourism products that integrate production, learning, and research based on the Ansai folk culture and revolutionary humanistic resources in the region. However, as a key model village in China’s rural revitalization strategy, Nangou Village is still exploring a new round of optimization and upgrading. On the basis of the theory of landscape perception and a demonstrated impact mechanism between landscape perception and satisfaction, as well as revisit intention, combined with the perception results, this article proposes feasible strategies for the planning, design, and optimization of the tourism industry in Nangou Village.

Theoretical foundation

Landscape perception theory.

Landscape perception theory originated in the 1950s and is an independent theory developed for environmental psychology research. It combines the research paradigms and methods of environmental psychology and human geography (Deng, 2006 ) and aims to study people’s preferences (Guo et al., 2004 ), perception (Crompton, 1979 ; Fan et al., 2014 ), and satisfaction levels (Tribe and Snaith, 1998 ; Chi and Qu, 2008 ) of the objective environment. Ervin Zube et al. ( 1982 ) integrated the existing research paradigms of landscape perception—expert paradigm, psychophysical paradigm, cognitive paradigm, and empirical paradigm—and further proposed a theoretical model to unify humans, landscapes, and the results of their interaction into a closed loop. Landscape perception is essentially a process in which the human brain acquires environmental information through the sensory systems and then processes it (Purcell, 1987 ). In the interactive relationship between people and landscapes, the landscape is the perceived object while people are the main subjects of the environmental perception. The perception of landscapes is related to individual differences, involving experiences, memories, cognitive level, and social–cultural backgrounds (Qin, 2022 ; Cosgrove, 1984 ).

Based on subjective feelings and psychological evaluations of the surrounding environment, landscape perception further affects individuals’ emotions and environmental behaviors. An emotional state is a psychological product of individuals’ acceptance of external stimuli, combined with their own experiences and cognition, which is an important driving force that can promote individuals’ interactive behavioral responses. Motloch ( 2000 ) proposed that landscape perception will also generate emotional load after observation, recognition, and meaning attribution. Song ( 2013 ) summarizes it as a process of landscape stimulation, generation of feelings, sublimation of cognition, and emotional response. For such emotional reactions, scholars commonly use satisfaction and place identity to measure the positive affective state generated by landscape perception (Baker and Crompton, 2000 ). Behavioral responses are subjective reactions of people to approach or avoid external stimuli, which are especially influenced by their emotional state (Bitner, 1992 ; Mehrabian and Russell, 1974 ). Gobster ( 2008 ) argues that landscape perception is reflected both in cognitive and emotional aspects and that landscape preferences and emotional experiences can affect environmental behavior. Ostoić et al. ( 2017 ) believe that landscape perception emphasizes the mutual influence of tourists’ perceptions, recognition, preferences, and other aspects of the tourism environment, which can directly reflect the effectiveness of the tourism environment’s planning and design, and thus affect tourists’ behavior. In short, there are interactions between landscape environmental stimuli, emotional states, and behavioral responses, and landscape perception has a significant impact on an individual’s sense of environmental responsibility, environmental protection intention, and intention to revisit a destination (Wu et al., 2019 ).

Landscape perception and satisfaction, revisit intention

Satisfaction is a comprehensive feeling experienced by tourists during and after visiting a tourist destination (Chon, 1989 ). It can be an evaluation of a single dimension such as landscape products, tourism services, transportation accessibility, etc., or a comprehensive measure of overall satisfaction in multiple dimensions (Cole and Scott, 2004 ; Sailesh et al., 2023 ). Among them, the physical landscape environment is one of the most important dimensions that affects overall satisfaction (Chi and Qu, 2009 ). Oliver ( 1980 ) proposed the “expectation discrepancy model”, which refers to the process in which tourists form certain expectations based on their previous experiences before traveling, and then compare their expectations with their actual feelings during the travel process to determine their level of satisfaction. If the expectations are met, the tourists are satisfied; otherwise, they are not. The tourism landscape studied in this article is an important component in the study of tourist destination satisfaction, which directly affects the tourists’ selection of tourist destinations, consumption of tourism products and services, and willingness to revisit.

Behavioral intention is the result of rational cognitive processing of situational information by tourists, resulting from psychological comparison and judgment (perception value or satisfaction). In the existing research, tourists’ behavioral intentions are often described as tourists’ recommendation behavior and revisiting intention. Revisit intention refers to the behavioral intention of tourists to visit the destination again in the future (Hung and Petrick, 2011 ). Chen proposed that revisit intention should include two levels of behavioral intention: the intention of the tourists themselves to revisit this place, and the intention to recommend this place to their acquaintances. Xiu, on this basis, included whether tourists would prioritize this attraction in their travel choices into the evaluation indexes of revisit intention (Guo, 2016 ). In addition, some scholars have demonstrated that destination image perception, especially landscape perception, is a direct driver of tourists’ recommendation behavior and intention (Chew and Jahari, 2013 ; Nisco et al., 2015 ; Prayag et al., 2017 ), and satisfaction with the tourism destination is one of the strongest factors affecting revisiting behavior (Campo-Martínez et al., 2010 ; Humagain and Singleton, 2021 ).

In summary, the relationship between landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention has been demonstrated in relevant studies. In spite of this, it remains necessary to further the research on the influence paths of these three factors. For example, Xu et al. ( 2023 ) took the Qilian Village landscape renovation project as the subject of a case study to identify users’ perceptions of landscape characteristics through structural equation modeling. Although they explored the impact of landscape perception on satisfaction, no further study was conducted on users’ behavioral intentions via the influence paths. Similarly, Qu et al. ( 2023 ), referring to the ancient villages in southern Anhui as an example, explored the path to high-quality development of rural tourism from the perspective of the authenticity of rural landscapes. Despite the SPSS data analysis conducted to verify the positive correlation between satisfaction and revisit intention, they ignored the optimization strategies of landscape as the carrier of tourism, which thus affects the applicability of this research. Additionally, in China, there are few papers that quantitatively present tourists’ landscape demands and support planning strategies, with most research focusing on the subjective discussions of tourism landscape planning strategies from the perspective of the supply side. In conclusion, it remains imperative to conduct further research on the strategies of optimizing the design of rural tourism landscapes based on a complete demonstration of the influence paths of landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention, with the results of quantitative data analysis as guidance.

Research hypotheses

Landscape perception theory has been widely applied in tourism-related research and has gradually permeated into the research on rural tourism landscapes (Yang et al., 2022 ; Fan, 2020 ). The rural tourism landscape studied in this article, perceived as a physical environment, usually includes rural ecological landscapes, authentic historical and cultural landscapes, agricultural leisure and entertainment facilities, and experiential red revolutionary landscapes, and it also involves diachronic overall tourism routes.

Some scholars have explored the rationality of the path mechanism of the landscape perception–satisfaction–revisit intention in related studies, and they used the relevant results as a strategic basis for optimizing the development of rural tourism. For example, Acharya et al. ( 2023 ) showed that the better the tourism ecological environment is, the higher the satisfaction and revisit intention of tourists are, and the path from the ecological environment to the revisit intention of tourists needs to be connected by satisfaction. Geng et al. ( 2010 ) analyzed and demonstrated the positive impact of rural natural landscape satisfaction and sightseeing route satisfaction on tourists’ revisit intention using logistic model analysis. Queiroz ( 2017 ) found that cultural experiences can better reflect the authenticity of rural areas, and tourist satisfaction can be improved through the enhancement of cultural facilities, thereby promoting tourists’ willingness to revisit. Yang et al. ( 2022 ) believe that developing recreational activities with rural characteristics can stimulate tourists’ interest and participation, thereby enhancing their satisfaction and willingness to return. Zhou et al. ( 2016 ) posited that recreational facilities and entertainment activities are both important factors that attract tourists to choose rural tourism; in addition, a higher attractiveness of the tourism landscape increases the satisfaction of tourists, creating a greater impact on revisit intention.

Some scholars have further proposed and demonstrated that satisfaction plays a mediating role in the impact path of tourists’ landscape perception on their revisit intention. For example, Kim et al. ( 2013 ) conducted a survey in rural areas and found that satisfaction plays an intermediary role between tourists’ rural image perception and tourists’ revisit intention.Tu et al. ( 2017 )proposed that the internal mechanism of tourists’ behavioral intentions based on destination image perception may be achieved through the mediating effect of positive emotions such as satisfaction. Meng ( 2018 ) argued that in rural tourism, rural landscapes, and related service facilities are important manifestations of rurality, which affect tourists’ satisfaction with their travel experience and indirectly affect their revisit intention.

In summary, this study took Nangou Village as a research sample to explore the influence mechanism between rural tourism landscape perception and its associated satisfaction and revisit intention, and the following hypotheses were made (Fig. 2 ).

The figure presents the hypothesized relationship between the three variables.

Hypothesis 1 (H1) . Rural tourism landscape perception will positively affect the overall satisfaction of rural tourism.

Hypothesis 2 (H2) . Rural tourism landscape perception will positively affect the rural tourism revisit intention.

Hypothesis 3 (H3) . Rural tourism satisfaction will positively affect the rural tourism revisit intention.

Hypothesis 4 (H4) . Satisfaction will act as a mediator in the relationship between rural tourism landscape perception and revisit intention.

Study design

Nangou Village, the research object of this study, is located in Gaoqiao Town, Ansai District, Yan’an City, Shaanxi Province, China, covering approximately 1716 hectares with seven natural villages under its jurisdiction, which are typical loess hilly villages (Fig. 3 ). As a key model village for rural revitalization, Nangou Village has a good natural ecological foundation and abundant agricultural and regional culture resources and has achieved preliminary linkages between the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. In the first rural tourism development, Nangou Village built the Nangou Paradise for sightseeing and its supporting facilities, the Nangou Soil and Water Conservation Demonstration Park of Ansai District of Yan’an City, and the Agricultural Picking Experience Park, the red military camps based on Yan’an Red Culture, and various characteristic landscape pieces under the influence of Ansai’s unique regional culture, which form a comprehensive cultural tourism village. With the deepening of rural revitalization in China, Nangou Village will serve as a key area for the Ansai District to build a five-billion-level cultural tourism industry cluster, further expanding and upgrading the existing tourism landscape facilities. Therefore, this article aims to propose a scientific strategy for the upgrading and transformation of Nangou Village through subjective evaluation methods.

The figure presents the geographic location of the Nangou village.

Evaluation index construction

Based on the analysis and organization of the existing literature and the construction of the theoretical framework mentioned earlier, this study constructed evaluation indicators for three variables: landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention (Table 1 ).

LP—The research on rural tourism landscape perception is not yet perfect; this study tentatively divided the LP scale into five dimensions on the basis of previous research and combined with a review of the literature. Among them, the Natural Ecology sub-dimension involves the evaluation of the rural landscape’s pastoral characteristics, the quality of the ecological environment, and the integration of landscape facilities and natural ecology (Xie et al., 2002 ; Marianna et al., 2023 ). The Historical Culture sub-dimension involves the evaluation of the regional history and culture of the rural tourism landscapes, the recognizability of the cultural symbols, and the authenticity of the cultural preservation (Huang et al., 2015 ). The Leisure Recreation sub-dimension involves the evaluation of the suitability, attractiveness, and abundance of recreational facilities in rural tourism landscapes (Yuan, 2017 ). The Research Experience sub-dimension involves the evaluation of the attractiveness, abundance, brand value, and impressiveness of the research experiences for tourists (Fan and Liu, 2016 ; Wang and Wang, 2010 ; Huang et al., 2018 ). The Integral Route sub-dimension involves the evaluation of the prominent theme features in the routes, an abundance of scenarios and experiences, and the attractiveness of the integral route (Li, 2003 ; Yan, 2021 ).

SA—This is the evaluation of whether the overall quality and experience of the rural tourism landscapes meet expectations. Here, the overall satisfaction, expectation, and competitiveness of rural tourism landscape quality and experience are used as the evaluation indexes (Chen, 2012 ; Wang et al., 2005 ).

RI—This is the evaluation of tourists’ loyalty to rural tourism destinations, with loyalty, willingness to revisit, and recommendation behavior as the evaluation indexes (Wang et al., 2006 ; Stylos et al., 2015 ).

Questionnaire design and collection

The questionnaire was designed in four parts. The first part covers the demographic characteristics, including gender, age, education level, and occupation. The second part is the evaluation of cultural image perception, while the third part is the evaluation of environmental design, and the fourth part is the evaluation of place perception. The items in these last three parts corresponded to the evaluation indexes shown in Tables 2 – 4 , respectively, and a 5-point Likert scale was used to rank the perception level.

In November 2022, the study conducted a field survey in Nangou village, complemented by an online questionnaire from November 15, 2022, through September 12, 2023. The introduction section of the questionnaire included the research objectives, the anticipated societal benefits, and the scope of information that would be collected. Before proceeding, participants were asked to review this introduction; their agreement to participate was taken as informed consent. In total, the study received 344 valid responses, serving as the sample data. The sample size satisfies the requirements for structural equation modeling that a desirable sample size should be over 200, with at least ten responses correlating to each variable under observation (Barrett, 2007 ).

Quantitative analysis methods

The data were analyzed using SPSS (version 27.0) and AMOS 27.0. Frequency analysis of the demographic characteristics and reliability analysis were conducted.

In this study, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the core method, and the three concepts of landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention were set as latent variables, and SEM was utilized to verify the hypotheses on the relationship between the three aspects. First, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was introduced to test whether the relationship between the factors and the corresponding measurement items was as expected, and to further revise the relationship model between the latent variables and the indicator question items and between the indicator question items (Li and Chen, 2010 ). Second, the interaction mechanism between the latent variables was analyzed by SEM to verify or falsify the research hypotheses (Gu et al., 2022 ). Finally, the bootstrap method was used to validate and analyze the indirect effects (Wen and Ye, 2014 ).

Results analysis

Demographic variables and statistical results of travel characteristics.

Using SPSS software to analyze the demographic characteristics of the 354 questionnaires, the sample was found to be well-balanced in terms of gender. The age distribution was broad and predominantly consisted of young and middle-aged people. The occupational status covered various fields, while most respondents had received middle and higher levels of education. The middle-income group accounted for a larger proportion of the sample, which is a good representation of the population (Fig. 4 ).

The figure presents the statistical results of the demographic variables for the 354 questionnaires.

The survey results showed that tourists preferred to choose research experience and historical culture landscape projects at the destination, followed by natural ecology and leisure recreation. In terms of tour length and size, tourists who chose one-day and two-person tours accounted for most of the tourists, and very few tourists chose multiday tours. The majority of tourists who came to this destination came as a unit, and the least frequent response was as individual tourists. The majority of tourists visited this village for the first time, and the number of tourists choosing to revisit the place again was very few (Fig. 5 ).

The figure presents the statistical results of the travel characteristics for the 354 questionnaires.

Reliability analysis results

In this study, the latent variables were tested using Cronbach’s α (Table 2 ), which showed that the Cronbach’s α values of landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention were 0.898, 0.803, and 0.845, respectively, and the scales’ overall Cronbach’s α value was 0.913. The Cronbach’s α values of the sub-dimensions under landscape perception ranged from 0.805 to 0.863, which are all greater than 0.8. In summary, the reliability test coefficients of each sub-dimension scale exceed 0.7, which indicates that the internal consistency of the data was good (Eisinga et al., 2013 ).

Latent variable evaluation results

As shown in Fig. 6 , the overall average landscape perception score was 3.748, which is close to a good level. Comparing the average evaluation score, the five latent variables can be ranked as NE > HC > RE > LR > IR, with scores of 3.976, 3.906, 3.889, 3.836, and 3.826, respectively. The overall average score for satisfaction was 3.625, between average and satisfactory. The overall average score for revisit intention was 3.452, between average and willing, but not reaching the desired level.

The figure presents the statistical results of the latent variable average scores. NE Natural Ecology, HC Historical Culture, LR Leisure Recreation, RE Research Experience, IR Integral Route, LP Landscape Perception, SA Satisfaction, RI Revisit Intention.

This study examined the relationship between the latent and observed variables in the measurement model through CFA to determine the reasonableness of the scale construction by convergent and discriminant validity. For convergent validity, there are usually three discriminating criteria: (1) standardized factor loadings are all greater than 0.5 (Bailey and Ball, 2006 ); (2) average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than 0.5 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988 ); and (3) composite reliability (CR) is greater than 0.7 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). Satisfying the above criteria indicates good convergent validity. As shown in Table 3 , the standardized factor loading ranged from 0.686 to 0.891, which meets the criterion of greater than 0.5. The minimum value of CR was greater than 0.8, which is greater than the threshold value of 0.7, and the AVEs were all greater than 0.5, which indicates that the scale has a good convergent validity.

For discriminant validity, if the correlation coefficients between a factor and the other factors are all less than the square root of its AVE value, it indicates good discriminant validity between the factors (Hair et al., 2010 ). As shown in Table 4 , the correlation coefficients between landscape perception and the two factors of its sub-dimension are only slightly larger than the square root of the AVE, and the square root of the AVE values of the rest of the factors is higher than the correlation coefficients between the factor and the other factors, which indicates that the present scale has good discriminant validity.

Theoretical model validation

Under the premise of ensuring the reliability and validity of the measurement model, structural modeling was further performed to verify the hypothesized relationships among the three variables of landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention. First, the results of model fit showed that CMID/DF = 1.097, GFI = 0.949, AGFI = 0.936, CFI = 0.995, TLI (NNFI) = 0.994, RMSEA = 0.017, and SRMR = 0.037 (Table 5 ), and all the indexes were in line with the standard, which indicated that the model had a good fit (Hayduk, 1987 ; Scott and Willits, 1994 ).

This study further used AMOS 27 to establish a structural model and measure the causal relationships between the three latent variables, LP, SA, and RI. As shown in Table 6 and Fig. 7 , (1) Landscape perception has a positive and significant effect on Satisfaction, with a path coefficient of 0.559 ( P  < 0.001); (2) Landscape perception has a positive and significant effect on Revisit Intention, with a path coefficient of 0.434 ( P  < 0.001); and (3) Landscape Satisfaction had a positive and significant effect on Revisit Intention, with a path coefficient of 0.377 ( P  < 0.001) (Cabrera-Nguyen, 2010 ). This proves that hypotheses H1, H2, and H3 are supported.

NE Natural Ecology, HC Historical Culture, LR Leisure Recreation, RE Research Experience, IR Integral Route, LP Landscape Perception, SA Satisfaction, RI Revisit Intention.

Mediation analysis of satisfaction

This study adopted the bootstrap method suggested by McKinnom to test the possible mediating effect of SA in the relationship between LP and RI, and the bootstrap sample size was set at 5000 (MacKinnon et al., 2002 ). Usually, if the bootstrap confidence interval does not contain 0, then the corresponding indirect, direct, or total effect exists (MacKinnon et al., 2004 ). The test results show that at a 95% confidence level, the confidence interval of indirect effect was [0.141, 0.314], the confidence interval of direct effect was [0.456, 0.755], and the confidence interval of total effect was [0.682, 0.961], which all exclude 0, indicating that the indirect effect exists, and the ratio of the indirect effect was 0.27. The results of the mediation test support hypothesis H4 (Table 7 ).

Discussion and recommendations

Coupling relationship among lp, sa, and ri.

This study established a hypothesis model based on the a priori theory of the influencing relationship between Landscape Perception→Satisfaction→Revisit Intention, and explored and confirmed the influence paths of LP on SA and RI with Nangou Village as the research object. In the SEM results, the coefficient of LP’s influence path on SA was 0.559, and the coefficient of LP’s influence path on RI was 0.434. LP influences tourists’ revisit intention to the destination through the overall satisfaction of the tourist landscapes, which confirms that the landscape quality and experience of the destination is an important influencing factor that affects tourists’ satisfaction, which then enhances tourists’ revisit intention. This result is consistent with that of many previous studies, such as those conducted by Cao ( 2019 ) and Li ( 2022 ), in which quantitative analysis is conducted under different contexts to investigate the influence paths of landscape perception. Their research also confirms that tourists’ perception of the landscape contributes to enhancing satisfaction and revisiting intention. At present, the intention to revisit Nangou Village has not reached the desired level. Based on the LP → SA → RI influence path, this study concludes that it is necessary to upgrade the tourism landscapes as a whole in the new round of rural tourism planning, to effectively improve the attractiveness of the destination from the environmental level.

Coupling relationship among LP and its sub-variables

Different from previous studies, we defined LP as a second-order variable containing five sub-dimensions: natural ecology, historical culture, leisure recreation, research experience, and integral route. The fitted data showed that the five sub-variables were an accurate representation of the LP structure. In the results of the structural equation, all five latent variables involved in the LP dimension showed significant positive correlations with LP ( P  < 0.01), and the influence path was IR > HC > LR > NE > RE. In the correlation analysis, IR, HC, LR, RE, and IR also showed significant positive correlations with revisit intention, with correlation coefficients in the order of NE > IR > HC > LR > RE (Table S1 ), and the correlation coefficients in the order of IR > LR > LR > RE (Table 2 ). All of these results emphasize the important influence of historical culture and integral route on landscape perception and revisit intention. In the actual evaluation of landscape perception, the evaluation results of the five sub-dimensions did not reach a satisfactory level; therefore, in order to further increase the revisit intention of the destination, it is necessary to upgrade the landscapes of Nangou Village in all dimensions as a whole, and in particular, it should focus on upgrading the historical culture, the integral routes, as well as the facilities of the research experience that tourists are more inclined to choose.

Recommendations

Deeply excavating rural historical and cultural resources.

Rural tourism itself is a large-scale cultural exchange; any tourism product or tourism mode has its own cultural connotation, which is a necessary condition to attract tourism (Li and Wang, 1999 ). Rural culture is both productive and fragile; therefore, cultural protection and inheritance in rural tourism development is essential. Emphasizing the characteristic regional culture can not only improve the visibility, dissemination, and attractiveness of rural tourism destinations, but also enhance the vitality, efficiency, and effectiveness of rural development. The rural landscapes are both the end product of rural tourism and the carrier of rural culture. Based on the principle of protecting the authenticity of rural culture, integrating the elements of native culture into the tourism landscape designs of traditional villages and optimizing the tourism content is conducive to strengthening the attractiveness of traditional villages to tourists (Sun and Zhang, 2020 ). The results of the survey on the preference of tourism types in Nangou Village show that the historical culture and landscapes are popular aspects. Meanwhile, the SEM model results show that historical culture is an important factor influencing tourists’ revisit intention. Therefore, future tourism planning in Nangou Village should strengthen the development of vernacular cultural landscapes and highlight its own distinct characteristics. The tourism landscapes developed in the first round in Nangou Village have problems such as low cultural taste and inconspicuous characteristics. The new tourism planning for Nangou Village should sufficiently mobilize the regional cultural resources of the Ansai District, utilizing the region’s primitive village landscapes and folk cultural resources to create a rich “composite vernacular complex” type of landscape facilities. For example, we could introduce traditional activities such as horse riding, cattle riding, and Paper Cuttings with Ansai characteristics to the local culture experience hall; renovate cave dwelling homestays with distinctive Shaanxi characteristics; and integrate agricultural and folk activities such as tasting farmhouse meals and picking agricultural products into the homestay experience. In summary, the new tourism landscape should showcase the inherent qualities of Nangou Village, such as locality, authenticity, and humanity, from four aspects: food, housing, transportation, and work.

Shaping the National Red Culture Brand

Red cultural resources, as the Chinese excellent culture refined during the revolutionary era, play a prominent role in enhancing national self-confidence and building a strong nation. Meanwhile, the red tourism industry, which inherits and carries forward the red culture, has also become a unique path in China’s rural revitalization (Liu, 2020 ). The purpose of rural red tourism is to jointly develop traditional green ecological resources and red resources with humanistic characteristics. Through the development model of red and green integration, we can carry forward the narrative and dissemination power of the red spirit concept. At the same time, based on the comprehensive development of red tourism routes, sites, events, symbols, and other resources, we can enhance the popularity of rural tourism brands, expand market entities, and attract more visitors (Hong, 2021 ). Nangou Village is located in the red Yan’an revolutionary hometown, which occupies a place in China’s revolutionary history. In the first round of development, Nangou Village built red culture experience facilities, mainly serving units with red education and training needs in the surrounding areas. However, Nangou Village has insufficient scheduling of classic resources such as red sites, red stories, red history, and red characters, and has not established a more competitive and penetrating red tourism culture brand that serves a comprehensive audience. Therefore, we suggest that Nangou Village expand the scale of red travel facilities, create multi-dimensional red tourism experience scenarios, enhance the cultural connotation of red tourism scenic spots, and create educational and training routes with prominent themes of the red spirit. In addition, rural culture, red tourism resources, and natural ecological resources should be integrated under specific local conditions, for example, temperature-controlled greenhouses, characteristic agricultural planting, folk culture experiences, and other projects around the red tourism areas can be incorporated. This is conducive to enhancing the “red tourism integration” brand effect for its greater influence on surrounding facilities. Therefore, the connection between the cultural dimension and tourists’ perception of landscapes can be reinforced. In turn, it enhances the favorability and visibility of the “Red Yan’an” brand, which gives full play to its economic potential while promoting the inheritance of red cultural genes.

Creating rural tourism boutique routes

Rural tourism boutique routes are an arrangement and scientific organization of characteristic tourism landscapes, which is an important strategy for rural tourism destinations to attract tourists. The creation of boutique tourism routes is based on the integration of regional resources, forming a “string of points into a line, with a line leading to the surface, the overall promotion” of the joint development of the countryside, which is able to better utilize and display rural resources, and promote the integrated development of industries and the cultivation of new business models (You, 2014 ; Wang, 2015 ). According to the SEM results, it can be seen that the integral route sub-dimension of Nangou Village had the greatest impact on landscape perception. However, at present, tourists gave the lowest rating for aspect, which affected their satisfaction and led to a low willingness to revisit. At present, the tourism landscape projects in Nangou Village have problems, such as dispersion, small scales, individual operations, a single rural tourism product, and imperfect industrial and economic structures. Therefore, the upgrading strategy should incorporate the cultural theme of “Ansai Five Business Cards” into the integral tourism routes, and form the regional tourism development routes, rural tourism routes, and red knowledge education and training routes in the Greater Nangou area, which rely on the characteristic resources of Nangou Village. Moreover, it should connect the regional construction with the routes, and form a diversified tourism industry integrating “agricultural science popularization + folklore experience + parent-child amusement + leisure agriculture”. Finally, the tourism route planning should make full use of the Nangou Village brand, taking rural culture and tourism as the engine to optimize and expand primary industries, achieve coordinated development of the village and urban economy, and focus on the development of tertiary industries, in order to cooperate with the new rural industrial development system in Nangou Village.

Conclusions

With the gradual evolution of urbanization and the extensive promotion of China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy, rural tourism has become more and more popular and has developed rapidly. Landscape perception is the process of human interactions with the landscape, and the positive or negative results of this perception will directly affect the satisfaction of the tourists with the destination, thus affecting the tourists’ revisit intention. This study was based on the theory of landscape perception, and selected Nangou Village as the research object, on the basis of validating the influencing relationship of Landscape Perception→Satisfaction→Revisit Intention, to put forward reasonable suggestions for the optimization and upgrading of Nangou Village. The results of the research show the following: (1) Tourists’ landscape perception significantly influences tourists’ satisfaction and revisit intention. (2) Tourists’ satisfaction with the destination plays an intermediary role in the influence of landscape perception on revisit intention. (3) Landscape perception contains five dimensions (natural ecology, historical culture, leisure recreation, research experience, and integral route), all of which significantly influence tourists’ satisfaction and revisit intention. Among these dimensions, historical culture and integral route have the greatest influence, which indicates that the cultural and integral nature of the landscape is the core element that drives tourists to generate positive emotions. (4) Tourists prefer landscape projects with historical culture and research experience. (5) The overall landscape planning of Nangou Village was not evaluated highly, and it needs to be upgraded in a focused way. Using the empirical results as a reference, this study proposes strategies for upgrading the tourism landscapes of Nangou Village: deeply excavate rural historical and cultural resources, shape the national red culture brand, and create rural tourism boutique routes. Therefore, exploring the factors affecting revisit intention and thinking about the construction of rural tourism landscape perception elements can provide theoretical guidance for solving the next stage of rural tourism planning in Nangou Village and providing a direction for the construction of beautiful villages in the future.

The methodology of empirical research as applied in this study, along with the corresponding data analysis conducted in the case study of Nangou Village, aims to reveal the influencing factors for revisit intention. By adopting a reverse-thinking approach to constructing the elements of rural tourism landscape perception, theoretical guidance is provided for the next phase of rural tourism planning in Nangou Village. Meanwhile, it gains the strategic insights crucial for local governments and collaborative planning agencies to develop, manage, and market rural tourism destinations. Additionally, the research methods used in this study provide a reference for relevant government and planning agencies to carry out rural tourism planning. Firstly, rural tourism relies heavily on tourism landscape facilities as its primary support system. Therefore, rural tourism is supposed to focus on increasing the attention paid to tourists’ demands from the perspective of the supply side. This can be achieved by constructing landscape perception scales that are more tailored to the advantages and characteristics of tourism destinations. Through the surveys of rural tourism landscape perception elements based on combined scale analysis, tourists’ expectations and demands can be better satisfied. Thus, their satisfaction and revisit intention can be enhanced. Secondly, in the practice of rural tourism marketing, the SEM (structural equation modeling) quantitative results of landscape perception, satisfaction, and revisit intention can be referenced to guide targeted promotion and advertising efforts for landscape elements perceived more strongly by tourists. In this way, the attractiveness to tourist groups can be improved. Lastly, planning agencies can apply the scale developed in this study to measure the satisfaction level of rural tourism industries in tourists’ minds at various stages. By assessing the scores in different dimensions, planning agencies can better identify their strengths and weaknesses, which enables them to maintain their advantages while making improvement.

Some limitations should be noted, which need to be addressed in the future. Firstly, the division of landscape perception dimensions in this study was somewhat subjective and innovative, and there are some immaturity issues. Secondly, the data collection time was short, which may not represent the average situation throughout the year. Finally, this article intended to propose optimization suggestions for Nangou Village at the landscape level, but this should be integrated with the industrial transformation, planning and propaganda, and enhancing service quality and other influencing factors of tourism destinations in the overall tourism planning.

Data availability

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material ( S2 . Dataset), further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Academy of Agricultural Planning and Engineering, MARD of China “Study on the transformation of rural space and planning response in the suburbs of Xi'an from the perspective of social change”, grant number XC2X2DKT-20230916 and by the Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Project of China “Study on Reshaping the Spatial Value of Cultural Memory of Industrial Heritage and the Path of Local Identity”, grant number 2022JM-289.

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Yuxiao Kou & Xiaojie Xue

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Conceptualization, YK and XX; methodology, XX; software, YK; validation, YK and XX; formal analysis, YK; investigation, YK; resources, XX; data curation, YK; writing—original draft preparation, YK; writing—review and editing, XX; visualization, YK; supervision, XX; project administration, XX; funding acquisition, XX All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Kou, Y., Xue, X. The influence of rural tourism landscape perception on tourists’ revisit intentions—a case study in Nangou village, China. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 620 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03129-8

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Overtourism? New UNWTO Report Offers Case Studies to Tackle Challenges

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PR No. : PR 19016

Madrid, Spain, 6 March 2019 – The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) released today the report ‘Overtourism’? Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth Beyond Perceptions: Case Studies’, choosing ITB Berlin as the fitting backdrop to address a pressing topic before the global tourism sector. The report provides examples of specific measures being implemented in cities across the Americas, Asia and the Pacific and Europe.

“Urban tourism is multifaceted and requires a city-wide strategy with cooperation between all stakeholders and the inclusion of tourism in the urban agenda”, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. “Sustainable and inclusive cities must mean creating cities for all: citizens, investors and visitors”, he addedd.

As acomplement to the conceptual approach, the report presented today looks into concrete case studies from Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Besalú, Cambridge, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Ghent, Hangzhou, London, Lucerne, Macao (China), New York, Lisbon, Seoul, Porto, Prague and Venice,.

The examples show that there is no ‘one-size fits all’ measure to tackle overtourism, and that any successful destination management strategy needs to be context specific. Although this might not come as a surprise, there is a connecting thread between the fundamental challenges: congestion in specific locations and sites at specific moments, mobility, pressure on infrastructure and resources, decrease in ‘place’ authenticity and impact on social fabrics and residents daily lives.

Consequently, the most common measures currently being implemented by destinations relate to the dispersal of visitors within the city and beyond, showing the pressing need to manage tourism congestion in certain areas and attractions. Measures with the aim of improving the city infrastructure and facilities are also frequently mentioned, reflecting the fact that many challenges are linked not only to the growing number of visitors but also to the pressure placed by residents, commuters and tourists on the city’s resources and services.

The Overtourism reports were produced in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality (CELTH), Breda University of Applied Sciences, and the European Tourism Futures Institute (ETFI) of NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences.

Useful links:

UNWTO report ‘‘Overtourism’? Understanding and managing urban tourism growth beyond perceptions’

‘Overtourism’? – Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions – Volume 2: Case Studies

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Overtourism Factsheet Volume 2

Tel: (+31) 76 533 2325 /  [email protected]

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Case Study: Angkor and The Tourism Development Strategic Plan 2012–2020

• Toolkit About the Sustainable Tourism Toolkit How to use this guide? Our Objective Resource Library
• Guides Strategic foundations Guide 1: Understanding Guide 2: Strategy Guide 3: Governance Guide 4: Engagement Core Delivery Guide 5: Communication Guide 6: Infrastructure Guide 7: Value Guide 8: Behaviour Guide 9: Investment Guide 10: Monitoring
• Case Studies Guide 1: Historic Town of Vigan Guide 2: Angkor Guide 2: Ichkeul National Park Guide 3: Melaka and George Town Guide 4: Avebury Guide 4: Old and New Towns of Edinburgh Guide 4: Great Barrier Reef Guide 4: Røros mining town and the circumference Guide 5: Røros Mining Town and the Circumference Guide 6: Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (United Kingdom) Guide 7: Røros Mining Town and the Circumference Guide 8: Wadi Al-Hitan Guide 9: Land of Frankincense

Baseline situation

This case study on Angkor represents some of the key threats and concerns World Heritage sites across the world may also have to deal with and manage. When Angkor was first inscribed in 1992, it was immediately placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to threat from conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam. It was only removed from this List in 2004, and, although domestic conflict was no longer a threat to the site, a number of new issues endangering the site had become apparent.

Angkor is an extensive site, which in recent years, has been visited by over three million international and domestic tourists per year. The impact of so many visitors is one of the key threats Angkor has been attempting to manage since its inscription. However, numbers have only continued to steadily increase. Furthermore, Angkor is also an inhabited landscape, a fact that has presented difficulties for those parties wishing to present an environment that fits a certain view of the World Heritage site and how it should look, rather than the reality of a contemporary and lived-in setting.

Another difficulty comes from the location of Angkor being in Siem Reap, one of the poorest provinces in Cambodia. This creates a set of circumstances that makes local residents more inclined to place emphasis and importance on the basic and immediate economical potential of Angkor rather than any longer term value and developmental potential it holds for the region. The comparative wealth of those who visit Angkor is also a draw for those living in other regions of Cambodia; it has been estimated that almost half of those working in the accommodation sector are not Siem Reap residents but seasonal workers who travel there to cash in on tourism.

What did they do?

‘Managing heritage at Angkor requires managing tourism’ (Tourism Management Plan 2012-2020)

The involved parties recognized that unless management dramatically changed to meet the contemporary needs of Angkor and its population, the site would be damaged beyond recovery. It has also been recognized that tourism represents both an economic necessity and the biggest threat to the longevity of Angkor, so it was decided a comprehensive tourism strategy must be developed in order to minimize threat and improve the long-term viability of Angkor as both a destination and a place for people to live. In response to this, the ‘Angkor World Heritage Area Tourism Management Plan, 2012–2020’ (TMP) under the Angkor Heritage Management Framework (HMF) project was developed.

Strategic priorities

• Dealing with the rapidly increasing numbers of tourists who visit Angkor.
• Reducing negative impacts of tourism (previously understood primarily in terms of conservation at the expense of all else).
• Improving tourist understanding of the local uses of Angkor, both as an inhabited area and as a place of continued religious significance.   
• Creating a more cohesive tourism industry that adheres to particular practice and standards.
• Providing better opportunities and financial return for local residents.

What worked?

The final draft of the TMP is a long and detailed document comprised of six broader aims or ‘initiatives’ addressing the four strategic priorities– promoting positive visitor experiences, reducing site impacts, partnering with industry, providing benefits for local people, improving governance, and engaging with stakeholders.

Initiative-specific strategies are defined to fulfil these aims , and each strategy is composed of individual steps (ranging from high to low priority) that are planned to take place in the approaching months and years.

Although the broader strategies and steps involved are in respect to different final goals, there are a number of common themes that the strategies share – communication, collaboration, delegation, limitation, examination, diversification, and conservation – and these themes can provide a template for other World Heritage site managers to consider in relation to their own sites, rather than the specific strategies and steps which have been defined with Angkor in mind.

What was tough?

The issues faced by Angkor have received much attention and criticism for perceived failures in management. The scale and complexity of Angkor means there is no one easy solution, and a number of measures have been undertaken in the past to deal with conservation and local residents. However, many of these efforts have failed due to a lack of communication between the different bodies responsible for Angkor; a lack of understanding on behalf of residents regarding the policies of World Heritage; an unwillingness to implement any system that might reduce the number of tourists who represent the region’s primary source of income; and the desire to conserve above all else. Consequentially, the strategic priorities for Angkor mentioned above have remained the same for some time .

How did they get buy-in?

Various stakeholders involved, including the Royal Government of Cambodia, the ICC, and the wider conservation community recognized and communicated the necessity for change and management of the growing risks associated with tourism and development at Angkor Wat and Siem Reap as a destination .  A ‘Tourism Industry Stakeholder Workshop’ and a ‘Community, Monks and NGO Workshop’ were held in Siem Reap in March 2012. Together, all of the stakeholders involved provided feedback, drafts, and changes prior to the adoption of the final draft of the Tourism Management Plan (TMP) aiming to make the industry more sustainable and beneficial to the conservation of the World Heritage site, the local community, and tourism businesses within the destination.

What lessons can others take from this?

When developing a tourism strategy for a World Heritage site, consider what the site has to offer even beyond its World Heritage status . The current World Heritage List citation for Angkor does not include natural values, nor does it recognize Angkor’s role as a spiritual lived-in landscape, but these may be of equal interest to tourists as the magnificent architecture and age of the site.

As with many other sites discussed in this Toolkit the local community must be a key consideration, and this includes local residents, tour operators, business owners, and anyone else who may be affected by the presence of the WHS and tourism the site draws. Setting up lines of communication should always be one of the very first things site managers work at prior to and during the conception and implementation of a Tourism Strategy.

For full details of the Angkor Wat TMP click here .

Developing a strategy for progressive change

All Case Studies

Case Based Research in Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Events

• © 2022
• Marianna Sigala 0 ,
• Anastasia Yeark 1 ,
• Rajka Presbury 2 ,
• Marcela Fang 3 ,
• Karen A. Smith 4

Department of Business Administration, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

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Strategy and Operations Discipline, Kaplan Business School, Brisbane, Australia

Blue mountains international hotel management school, torrens university, sydney, australia, faculty of higher education, william angliss institute, melbourne, australia, wellington school of business and government, victoria university of wellington, wellington, new zealand.

• Consolidate case studies from tourism, hospitality, events that combine theory and practice to untangle real world issue
• Enables students to develop academic mastery by better understanding and applying knowledge beyond the classroom
• Inspires scholars to use case study methods to research as well as implement a research informed teaching approach

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Table of contents (27 chapters)

Front matter, introduction, case study: an underestimated research and pedagogical method.

• Marianna Sigala, Anastasia Yeark, Rajka Presbury, Marcela Fang, Karen A. Smith

Experiences

Designing servicescape and experience with art: learnings from the d’arenberg cube , australia.

Marianna Sigala

A Day in the Life of Guest Experience Stagers: The Saffire Freycinet Experience

• Anita Manfreda, Justin King

Extraordinary (Memorable) Experiences in Events: The Case of Skylighter Fireworx, Australia

• Anastasia Yeark, John Powers

Boom Then Bust at the George Hotel

• Eileen Aitken-Fox

High-End Restaurants During COVID-19: The Beginning of a New Fine-Dining Era?

• Sandra Cherro Osorio, Ana Delevska, Peter Matheis

The Power of Words: A Case Study of Service Language in an Australian Five-Star Hotel

• Madalyn Scerri, Rajka Presbury

Hidden Factors: Operations Management Implications for the Hayman Island Resort

• Zdenka Gabrielova, Marcela Fang

Hotel Revenue Management Strategy – Impacts and Consequences of Changes in Management

• Antoine J. Bisson

The Expansion of MexHospitality: Exploring the Ethical Implications of Hospitality Outsourcing

• Blanca A. Camargo

Exploring the Relationship Between Hotel Classification System and Service Quality: A Case Study of the Indian Hotel Industry

Technologies, how to design a smart tourism destination: the case of granada.

• Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda, Juan Sánchez-Fernández, Ana-Belén Bastidas-Manzano

Marketing Suburban Tourism Destinations on Social Media: The Case of the City of Joondalup, Western Australia

• Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta, Violetta Wilk

Mandatory System Usage Behaviour: A Case Study in Australian Resorts

• Leo Y. L. Kwong, Susan Foster, Victoria Peel

EHS Hotels: Neuroimaging or Self-Reports When Evaluating Tourism Advertising and Websites?

• Hospitality
• Tourism case studies
• Tourism management
• International Tourism
• Marketing communications

About this book

This book consolidates international, contemporary and topical case study based research in tourism, travel, hospitality and events. Case studies can make learning more attractive and interesting as well as enable students to understand the theory better and develop their analytical and problem-solving skills. Using industry as an open living lab, case study based research infuses scholars into real-world industry challenges and inspires them to theorise and advance our knowledge frontiers.

The book includes international case studies that can help tourism scholars build and advance (new) theories and enrich their educational practices. Case studies are accompanied with a teaching note guiding scholars to integrate case studies into instruction.

Dr Kirsten Holmes, Chair, Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) 

There is a vital need for contemporary and well-structured case studies for use in tourism teaching. By including case studies from Australasia and key destination regions in Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean, the book is helpful for tertiary teachers globally. 

The book inspires educators and students. The cases provide context to students’ learning and demonstrate the richness and variation of the industry. The book also clearly demonstrates how research can inform our teaching. 

Professor Brian King, Chair, THE-ICE Assessment Panel   

The book includes cases under five themes: experiences, operations, technologies, strategy and marketing, and destinations. The book provides subject lecturers with a structure to guide students of applying theory into practice. 

Dr Paul Whitelaw, Academic Director, Southern Cross University

This book marks a significant contribution to hospitality, tourism and events pedagogy at undergraduate and postgraduate level.  At a time when the industry is demanding that our graduates have a strong grasp of “real world issues”, the case study approach provides an accessible, meaningful and relatable means by which students can engage in real world issues.

Editors and Affiliations

Anastasia Yeark

Rajka Presbury

Marcela Fang

Karen A. Smith

About the editors

Prof Marianna Sigala   

Dr Rajka Presbury   

Dr Rajka Presbury coordinates the scholarship activities at Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School (BMIHMS) at Torrens University. Before joining academia, Dr Presbury gained extensive professional experience in the hotel sector and had held several management positions in Banqueting Services, Restaurant, and Event Sales and Conventions. Rajka is an auditor for the International Centre for Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education (THE ICE): www.the-ice.org.   

Dr Marcela Fang   

Dr Marcela Fang is a management lecturer in the Faculty of Higher Education at William Angliss Institute, where she teaches strategic management, leadership and innovation. Her experience includes lecturing, design and development of curriculum for higher education and industry settings. Marcela’s research focuses on leadership, leadership development, evaluation of higher education and training programs, strategy and innovation.  

Prof Karen A. Smith

Prof Karen A. Smith is an Associate Dean in the Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, where she is also a Professor of Tourism Management and teaches tourism and event management. She has co-edited four books and journal articles on a range of tourism and volunteer management areas. She makes extensive use of case studies in teaching and curriculum design. 

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Case Based Research in Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Events

Editors : Marianna Sigala, Anastasia Yeark, Rajka Presbury, Marcela Fang, Karen A. Smith

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4671-3

Publisher : Springer Singapore

eBook Packages : Business and Management , Business and Management (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

Hardcover ISBN : 978-981-16-4670-6 Published: 06 January 2022

Softcover ISBN : 978-981-16-4673-7 Published: 07 January 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-981-16-4671-3 Published: 05 January 2022

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVIII, 505

Number of Illustrations : 1 b/w illustrations

Topics : Tourism Management , Marketing , Management , Operations Management , Artificial Intelligence

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Eco tourism case study: the role of corporates, tourism bodies and governments, with focus on brazil, mexico and indonesia.

Dublin, May 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Eco Tourism - Case Study" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This case study looks at the increasing interest behind the niche tourism segment of eco-tourism. It discusses the concept of eco-tourism, motivations behind eco-tourism, eco-tourism in the media and the role of travel industry players and tourism bodies.

The case study also discusses the negative side of eco-tourism and the impacts it may have as well as the potential benefits associated with eco-tourism. Finally, this case study looks at types of eco-destinations and explores key destinations around the world. Report Scope

Eco Tourism lowers carbon footprints by consuming less energy when traveling. By choosing Eco Tourism, travelers can contribute to environmental sustainability and sustainable travel practices. According to the the analyst Q3 2021 consumer survey "In general, what type of holidays do you typically take?" out of 22,499 global respondents, 19% of respondents (4,273 respondents) said that they prefer to choose Eco Tourism holiday types.

According to the the analyst survey, "How often while traveling do you consider an "eco-friendly" destination?" Out of 50 respondents, 38% of respondents (19 respondents) said that they prefer to choose eco-friendly destinations, of which 14% said they always prefer eco-friendly destinations and 24% said they often choose eco-friendly destinations.

The emergence of social media as a method of communication has brought about a worldwide paradigm shift in how people observe, interact with, and exchange information. The evolution of social media as a new technology has changed the way in which the tourism industry works to some extent, which in turn has significantly influenced the Eco Tourism industry.

According to the the analyst business commitment towards ESG poll, of 357 respondents, 50.1% said that they feel companies treat ESG as a marketing exercise, followed by 31.9% of respondents who said that some companies take ESG seriously. This skepticism shows the importance of transparency and showcasing clear results of sustainability efforts.

Key Topics Covered:

Overview of Eco Tourism industry

Main findings

Growing Eco Tourism industry demand

Eco-friendly Accommodation

Eco Tourism in the Media

The Role of Corporates, Tourism Bodies and Governments

Types of Eco Tourism

Key Eco tourism Destinations: Brazil

Key Eco Tourism Destinations: Mexico

Key Eco Tourism Destinations: Indonesia

Eco Tourism Projects

Opportunities in Eco Tourism industry

Challenges in Eco Tourism industry

Key Report Benefits

Gain an understanding of eco-tourism.

Recognize the range of the potential negatives and associated benefits of eco-tourism.

Gain an understanding of eco-tourism motivations.

Gain an understanding of the role of the media, travel industry players and tourism bodies.

Company Coverage:

Elsa's Kopje

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/of1etf

About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

University students' perceptions of tourism impacts: a study in Vietnam

Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal

ISSN : 1819-5091

Article publication date: 19 October 2023

Research about tourism impacts is abundant. However, existing studies often investigate tourism impacts from residents’ and tourists’ perspectives. The study targeting students is absent. The students’ perception and evaluation of tourism impact must be investigated independently to have more insights into improving the current education curriculum, which covertly addresses the impacts. Therefore, this study aims to examine university students’ perception of tourism impacts as young tourists to provide implications for better teaching of such content in the future.

Design/methodology/approach

Vietnam was chosen as the context, and a mixed method was employed. First, free elicitation with 118 university students was carried out to identify the students’ perceived impacts (109 items, four categories). Second, structured surveys using the previously generated content with 243 and 224 university students were implemented to identify the latent structures of the impacts (3-4 factors per impact category).

Tourism impacts can be dually perceived. In other words, they can come in positive or negative forms or are directed toward the destinations or the residents. However, being positive or negative, or affecting the place or the people, tourism impacts have some general and universal elements concerning the economic, sociocultural and environmental ones. In addition, they have some specific and contextual aspects, such as cross-border marriages, child labor and economic autonomy loss.

Originality/value

Tourism impacts seen from the perspective of university students are relatable and valuable for tourism education. Educators in Vietnam should consider revising the current curriculum to address all the tourism impacts overtly.

Tourism impacts

• University students

Nghiêm-Phú, B. , Hoàng, T.T.-T. , Kiều, H.T. and Vũ, H.L. (2023), "University students' perceptions of tourism impacts: a study in Vietnam", Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal , Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEAMJ-06-2023-0043

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Bình Nghiêm-Phú, Trang Thị-Thu Hoàng, Hương Thu Kiều and Hương Lan Vũ

Published in Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Tourism is one of the essential industries in the economies of many countries, including Vietnam. Therefore, education about tourism impacts also is an essential activity. However, educators primarily emphasize tourism’s economic impact ( Menon, Gunasekar, Dixit, Das, & Mandal, 2022 ). In other words, educators in the field may unintentionally neglect or covertly address other aspects of tourism impacts, such as the socio-cultural and environmental ones. Therefore, expanding the current curriculum to overtly educate students about all the potential impacts of tourism is necessary.

Research on tourism impacts, nonetheless, often investigates these issues from the residents’ perspective ( Easterling, 2004 ; Gursoy, Ouyang, Nunkoo, & Wei, 2019 ). Research about tourism impacts from the tourists’ viewpoints is scarce ( De Urioste-Stone, Scaccia, & Howe-Poteet, 2015 ; Joo & Woosnam, 2019 ; Moyle, Weiler, & Croy, 2013 ; Prideaux, McNamara, & Thompson, 2012 ). The study on university students’ perception and evaluation of tourism impacts is absent. As young adults without much living and working experience, university students may find it difficult to relate to the impacts from other people’s perspectives. Thus, the students’ opinions must be investigated independently for more insights into improving the current education curriculum. The meaningfulness and effectiveness of the new curriculum may be strengthened if the impacts are assessed directly from the students’ points of view.

The abovementioned issues are also apparent in Vietnam’s context. Specifically, university educators and students in the country were more concerned about the tourism industry’s macro and personal economic impacts than the others ( Buzinde et al. , 2018 ; Le, McDonald, & Klieve, 2018 ). University students’ opinions about tourism impacts were neglected ( Adongo, Choe, & Han, 2017 ; Suntikul et al. , 2016 ).

Therefore, this study examines Vietnamese university students’ perception of tourism impacts. It identifies the individual and latent dimensions of tourism impacts via a mixed design (qualitative → quantitative). The outcomes are helpful for tourism students’ future education ( McKercher & Prideaux, 2011 ; Yuan, 2014 ). They will also enrich the literature on tourism impacts.

Literature review

Tourism has many impacts on the destinations and their residents, both positive and negative. On the one hand, tourism participates in planning and implementing development plans for tourist destinations, creating more jobs and income for residents ( Alonso, Bressan, O’Shea, & Krajsic, 2015 ; Shin, 2010 ). In addition, the sector helps protect and preserve the natural and cultural resources of the destinations and provides suitable environments for residents to live in and be proud of ( Tervo-Kankare, Kaján, & Saarinen, 2018 ; Wang & Bramwell, 2012 ).

On the other hand, tourism causes price increases in real estate and other public products and services, and different stakeholders may have unequally distributed tourism income ( Mbaiwa, 2017 ; Nghiêm-Phú & Shibuya, 2021 ). Moreover, tourism may expose too many unwanted pressures on the infrastructure and socio-cultural conditions of the destinations ( Nghiêm-Phú & Shibuya, 2021 ; Postma & Schmuecker, 2017 ). Considering these impacts, residents may want to support or oppose the further development of tourism in their locations ( Eslami, Khalifah, Mardani, Streimikiene, & Han, 2019 ; Kim & Kang, 2020 ).

In addition, tourism can also generate some intrinsic impacts for tourists. For example, tourism experiences can make tourists happier and have a better quality of life ( Chen, Petrick, & Shahvali, 2016 ). Happy tourists may return to the destinations and spread good word-of-mouth about the destinations to their acquaintances ( Pai, Liu, Kang, & Dai, 2020 ). However, preparing for the holidays and encountering harmful incidents (e.g. accidents, diseases and relationships with others) during the trips may dampen tourists’ moods and feelings ( Agate, Agate, & Birchler, 2015 ; Crawford, Jackson, & Godbey, 1991 ). Consequently, many people may hesitate to go on holiday, while many tourists may not want to repeat their trips to the destinations.

On the other hand, tourists also know the external impacts their activities can cause on the destinations. Tourists’ perceived impacts, interestingly, are not different from those perceived by residents, including the economic, sociocultural, environmental and psychological categories ( De Urioste-Stone et al. , 2015 ; Moyle et al. , 2013 ; Prideaux et al. , 2012 ). However, how they evaluate the impacts may differ from how the residents see them ( Puczkó & Rátz, 2000 ).

Overall, the perceived impacts of tourism vary across destinations and types of tourism activities ( Canteiro, Córdova-Tapia, & Brazeiro, 2018 ; MacNeill & Wozniak, 2018 ; Wang, Huang, Gong, & Cao, 2020 ). The perceptions may also differ among age and occupation groups ( Jaafar, Rasoolimanesh, & Ismail, 2017 ; Sharma & Dyer, 2009 ). Thus, perceived tourism impacts can be highly subjective and context-based. Therefore, a study on university students’ perception of these issues is essential.

Tourism impacts education

To make tourism a sustainable industry, tourism education curricula at universities should include tourism impacts ( Boley, 2011 ). Unfortunately, this content is often primarily underestimated ( Menon et al. , 2022 ). University educators’ priorities seem to be the strengthening of the academia-industry relationships ( Anderson & Sanga, 2019 ; Jennings, Cater, Hales, Kensbock, & Hornby, 2015 ; Mei, 2019 ) and the adaptation of advanced technologies ( Fatima, Ghandforoush, Khan, & Di Mascio, 2019 ; Qiu, Li, & Li, 2021 ; Schott, 2017 ). In other words, tourism education mainly associates itself with the business world while overlooking its role in addressing social issues ( Caton, 2014 ).

In addition to curriculum-based education, extracurricular activities may further help with tourism impacts education. For example, field trips, both real and virtual, give university students the opportunities to see and hear directly about tourism impacts, especially from the businesses’ and residents’ perspectives ( Schott, 2017 ). Volunteer projects can also create similar effects ( Palacios, 2010 ). From a recreational standpoint, holidays and trips can give university students first-hand knowledge about the tourism industry’s impacts on the destinations ( Cohen, 2011 ). Activities taken during said holidays and trips can also alert university students about the (ir)responsible and (un)sustainable behaviors ( Poudel & Nyaupane, 2013 ). These out-campus exercises can inform students about all types of tourism impacts, both business- and non-business-related.

Nonetheless, the abovementioned extracurricular or out-campus initiatives are only random and sporadic. Although their contributions are invaluable and can help support and enrich the on-campus programs, tourism impact content must be embedded in regular curricula to ensure the meaningfulness and effectiveness of tourism education.

Given the exploratory nature of this study, a mixed method was selected ( Figure 1 ). Initially, the researchers implemented qualitative research to identify the specific impacts that university students could relate to (step 1). After that, they implemented quantitative research to reveal the latent dimensions of students’ perceived impacts (step 2). The researchers followed Worthington and Whittaker (2006) when generating (step 1) and structuring (step 2) the tourism impact items and factors. The research process is visualized in Figure 1 .

Qualitative study

With extensive research on tourism impacts, it was easy and convenient to create a pool of individual tourism impact items by reviewing the literature. However, this conventional method was inappropriate since previous studies did not target university students from the learners’ perspective. Instead, the researchers asked the university students in Vietnam to directly and personally talk about their perceived impacts ( Worthington & Whittaker, 2006 ).

Specifically, the research group qualitatively surveyed their university’s tourism students in an illustrative single-case approach ( Thomas, 2011 ). This design was because tourism students in Vietnam could be regarded as relatively homogenous compared to those of other majors, given the job market trends and the admission requirements ( Trà My, 2023 ). Surveying one faculty’s students still had an illustrative value. Noticeably, the involved faculty belonged to a public university based in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam.

Initially, one researcher of the research group asked the students in their classes to write about the impacts of tourism as a part of their assignments. Before this undertaking, this researcher mentioned tourism impacts in their previous classes to guarantee that the students understood the primary concept of impact, although tourism impacts were not part of their curriculum. In the essay, the researcher asked the students to directly describe their latest tourism experiences (question 1) and the impacts of their holidays and trips (question 2) ( Bennett, 1984 ; Reilly, 1990 ). This free elicitation method ensured that the students’ perception of tourism impacts was derived from their primary encounters with the tourism industry ( Cohen, 2011 ; Poudel & Nyaupane, 2013 ). Information and knowledge gathered through such extracurricular and out-campus encounters were meaningful to projecting and delivering future curricular and on-campus educational content.

The research group received a total of 118 essays in October 2020. All students took at least one domestic trip in the previous six months (including internships and other extracurricular activities). After that, all research group members worked together to analyze the content of the essays with total agreement as the measure of reliability ( Elo & Kyngäs, 2008 ; Kassarjian, 1977 ). They identified a total of 109 individual impacts. However, further thematic analysis ( Braun & Clarke, 2006 ) suggested four different categories: the positive impacts on the destinations (n = 37), the positive impacts on the residents (n = 17), the negative impacts on the destinations (n = 30), and the negative impacts on the residents (n = 25). These outcomes were consistent with the existing literature’s observation about the dual impacts of tourism (positive-negative) and double impact recipients (destination-resident) ( Alonso et al. , 2015 ; Postma & Schmuecker, 2017 ). Thus, they were valid and reliable (results triangulation; Oppermann, 2000 ).

Quantitative study

Although the individual impacts and the impact categories were already identified and triangulated, the substantial amounts of individual items suggested that there might be some hidden factors in each category. Therefore, the research group implemented a quantitative survey to identify the latent structures of the tourism impact categories in October and November 2021.

Initially, the research group prepared a questionnaire containing all the impact items generated in the qualitative study (109 items). However, the pre-test of this questionnaire suggested that it was challenging for the participants to stay focused when there were too many questions of a similar nature. Therefore, the research group used two questionnaires in the primary survey, each concerning the positive and negative impacts. The students who did not participate in the qualitative study provided their answers to these questionnaires.

Considering the situational conditions caused by COVID-19, the three local researchers posted the questionnaires (Google Forms) on the social media groups of students administered by themselves in two weeks, one in October 2021 (the first stage, the positive questionnaire) and another in November 2021 (the second stage, the negative questionnaire). A total of 311 and 246 students answered the two questionnaires, respectively. Some students who participated in the first stage did not contribute their answers in the second stage. The reason was that their participation was voluntary, and those who lost their interest or were unavailable during the second survey might drop out.

Although the answers were complete, some had the same evaluation value (totally disagree = 1, disagree = 2, neither disagree nor agree = 3, agree = 4, and totally agree = 5). These contributions were removed from the databases to guarantee the meaningfulness of the data. This undertaking left the usable samples of 243 for the positive impacts (mean age = 18.8; first-year = 51.9%; second-year = 26.7%; third-year = 13.6%; fourth-year and others: 7.8%) and 224 for the negative impacts (mean age = 18.4; first-year = 69.6%; second-year = 25.0%; third-year = 4.5%; fourth-year and others: 0.9%), respectively. The male-to-female ratio was approximately 1:9 since female students comprised most of this tourism faculty.

The data were then factor analyzed in IBM SPSS to identify the hidden factors of each perceived tourism impact category. The outcomes suggested three to four factors underlying each category. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin values of the final solutions were bigger than 0.80, and Bartlett’s Tests of Sphericity were all significant ( p  < 0.000) ( Morgan, Leech, Gloeckner, & Barret, 2004 ). However, the researchers removed from all analyses the items loading on two factors or more, but the gaps between or among the loading values were smaller than 2.0 ( Matsunaga, 2010 ). Eventually, all the loading and communality values of the remaining items exceeded 0.50 and 0.30, respectively ( Morgan et al. , 2004 ). The majority of Cronbach’s alphas of the factors were above 0.70. There were two lower alpha values (0.50 < α < 0.70), but they were acceptable given the exploratory nature of the analysis and the small number of items of the related factors (n = 2) ( Tavakol & Dennick, 2011 ).

Finally, the first researcher of the research group prepared the English version of the impact items since the originals were written in Vietnamese. An independent researcher fluent in English and Vietnamese checked and approved these items to ensure their appropriateness before the researchers presented them in this paper.

From the perspective of Vietnamese university students, the tourism industry can create many positive impacts on the destinations and the residents. In a sense, tourism helps develop the local economy by creating income and revenues, promoting and sustaining the production and service sectors and developing the infrastructure ( Table 1 , factor 1). The industry also helps maintain and beautify the local natural environment and architectural landscape ( Table 1 , factor 2). From the socio-cultural standpoint, tourism is the bridge between residents and tourists, allowing them to understand one another better and appreciate others’ cultures and values ( Table 1 , factor 3). Finally, the industry can spill the effects to other economic sectors, such as banking and health care ( Table 1 , factor 4).

In another sense, tourism can have specific socio-cultural and environmental contributions to the residents, such as pride strengthening, cross-border exchange and contact provision and ability and attitude change ( Table 2 , factor 1). Tourism can also bring many economic benefits, such as income and job opportunities ( Table 2 , factor 2). These impacts are narrower and more personal than those on the destination. Finally, the industry provides opportunities for the female gender to improve their sex role thanks to better financial and social prowess ( Table 2 , factor 3).

On the other hand, according to the university students surveyed, tourism can also negatively impact the destinations. At the destination level, the industry is a noticeable force behind specific social and environmental issues found at the destinations, such as insecurity, loss of peacefulness and environmental pollution ( Table 3 , factor 1). In addition, people often blame the industry for its influences on cultural issues, including the weakening and loss of identity, norms and values ( Table 3 , factor 2). Moreover, tourism can contribute to some economic problems of the destinations, such as ineffective financial resources use and inappropriate planning for future development ( Table 3 , factor 3).

Besides the above impacts, tourism can be another source of distress for residents. First, the health risks and socioeconomic problems are particularly thought to be created, in part, by the activities of tourists and tourism businesses ( Table 4 , factor 1). Second, child labor issues can be observed when tourism is an active economic industry, and children are asked or forced to work there ( Table 4 , factor 2). Third, the loss of economic independence and autonomy can arise when foreign players dominate those of the locals ( Table 4 , factor 3). Fourth, the income gap may be apparent because some people can make more money from tourism and tourists than others ( Table 4 , factor 4). Again, these impacts are directed toward the residents personally and narrowly.

Although eliminated in the quantitative analyses, the other impacts corroborate with the latent factors identified earlier. The overall observation is that tourism’s economic, sociocultural, environmental, and, to some extent, health-related impacts are apparent at both the destination and resident levels. However, while the impacts on the destinations are broad and universal, those on the residents are more specific and personal. For example, “sex role improvement” and “child labor” can be considered specific social impacts directed at female and child residents. In addition, “economic (in)dependence” and “income gain/loss” can be regarded as specific economic impacts involving all residents.

Tourism impacts can be dually perceived. In other words, they can come in positive and negative forms ( Alonso et al. , 2015 ; Mbaiwa, 2017 ; Postma & Schmuecker, 2017 ; Tervo-Kankare et al. , 2018 ; Wang & Bramwell, 2012 ). These impacts can perform their magic for the tourist destinations as a whole. However, from the perspective of the university students, they can also do that to the residents in particular. A place-and-people view of tourism impacts, therefore, also exists.

However, being positive or negative, or affecting the place or the people, tourism impacts seen from the university students’ eyes have some general and universal elements concerning the economic, sociocultural and environmental ones. In addition, they have some specific and contextual aspects as well. Specifically, tourism can create an excellent spill-over effect under an economic calculation that helps develop other economic sectors ( Alola, Cop, & Alola, 2019 ; Ma, Hong, & Zhang, 2015 ). Nonetheless, the participation of more powerful stakeholders from abroad at tourist destinations can threaten the economic independence and autonomy of the local players; this has a harmful impact ( Meyer, 2013 ; Mitchell & Li, 2017 ). Alternatively, from a sociocultural perspective, the excellent contribution of tourism can be apparent in the improvement of women’s roles ( Ferguson, 2011 ; Tajeddini, Walle, & Denisa, 2017 ). Nevertheless, the destructive influence of the industry can be found in the exposure to health risks and the exploitation of child labor ( Jiménez, del Carmen Serrano-Barquín, Villarreal, & Vargas Martínez, 2022 ; Nghiêm-Phú & Shibuya, 2021 ). Noticeably, such specific and contextual impacts are closely associated with developing tourist destinations, such as Vietnam.

These results suggest that university students’ perception and evaluation of tourism impacts are similar to those of other tourists and residents ( De Urioste-Stone et al. , 2015 ; Gursoy et al. , 2019 ; Joo & Woosnam, 2019 ; Moyle et al. , 2013 ; Prideaux et al. , 2012 ). The latent factors’ contents and names may differ among contexts and subjects, but their nature is the same. The structure of tourism impacts, thus, is objective and stable. However, the particular impacts are subjective and flexible. Therefore, the examination of tourism impacts should simultaneously consider these issues.

Practical implications

University students in Vietnam have proper and up-to-date knowledge about tourism impacts thanks to their extracurricular and out-campus experiences. Tourism educators in this country can further contribute to improving or strengthening the students’ understanding by helping them organize the impacts in a structured way. However, they should notify the students about the multifaceted nature of tourism impacts, including the positive-negative, place-people, general-specific and universal-contextual ones. Regarding the last point (contextual impacts), this study’s outcomes suggest several exciting topics for in-depth discussion. First, local women can find partners for their cross-border relationships and marriages when working in tourism ( Statham, Scuzzarello, Sunanta, & Trup, 2020 ). According to the university students surveyed in this study, this impact is positive. Second, some children must work in the sector to help their families. At the same time, many residents may lose their economic autonomy to foreign business people with more resources ( Jiménez et al ., 2022 ; Meyer, 2013 ; Mitchell & Li, 2017 ). According to the surveyed university students, these impacts are negative ones.

Nonetheless, to address these contents, tourism institutions in Vietnam must acknowledge the importance of tourism impact education and the lack of non-economic impact education in the current curriculum ( Buzinde et al. , 2018 ; Le et al. , 2018 ). They should overtly include the socio-cultural, environmental and health-related impacts either as an independent subject or a prominent topic in an existing subject in their revised curriculum. Other countries where the economic impacts are emphasized while the non-economic impacts are neglected ( Menon et al. , 2022 ) can also refer to the case of Vietnam to better develop their tourism education programs.

Concluding remark

University students are mostly young individuals. However, when they use the actual experiences gathered via holidays and trips, they can adequately evaluate the impacts of tourism, the field they are exploring. According to the university students surveyed in this research, tourism impacts are complicated and multifaceted. Tourism educators should combine universal and contextual content in their classes to better assist these students in their future studies. Comparing the situations within and outside a country can provide a diverse perspective on tourism activities and the consequent impacts.

This research, however, could not avoid some limitations. First, it only surveyed students of one tourism faculty. Thus, the outcomes might be incomplete since they did not include the opinions of students of other tourism departments in Hanoi and other cities and provinces in Vietnam. Second, the study did not examine the differences in students’ views according to their internal and external characteristics (e.g., age, personality, tourism experience, business experience). In addition, a comparison of the opinions held by tourism students and other stakeholders (e.g., adult tourists, tourism educators, residents) was unimplemented. Further information for tourism educators, if it was needed, was not available. Third, the students’ opinions were limited to the domestic context. Their evaluations of tourism impacts were not relevant to international tourism. In other words, the contextual impacts for other destinations could not be derived from this study.

Future studies in Vietnam can expand the scale of this study to have broader and comparative insights into university students’ perceived tourism impacts. Other studies abroad may follow the design of this study to identify the contextual perceived impacts and the other facets of the perceived impacts. The outcomes of these efforts will provide essential materials for tourism educators and students in their teaching and studying, especially since contextual knowledge is critical in tourism education ( Velempini & Martin, 2019 ).

The research process

Positive impacts on the destinations

Note(s): The other impacts: NR3. Local communities may be broken; NR4. Residents’ life may be pressurized due to regulations; NR5. Affect the residents’ lifestyle and schedule; NR6. Residents’ health may be affected by diseases brought by tourists; NR8. Residents do not work in other economic sectors due to the tourism industry’s higher income; NR9. Increase conflicts among the residents due to competition; NR10. Some residents may have a low quality of life due to high living expenses; NR11. Residents may be affected by tourists’ bad attitudes; NR12. Residents may be pressured by local administration; NR15. Residents may have to buy expensive products and services; NR17. Residents and tourists may have cultural conflicts; NR21. Foreign business people and investors may take the residents’ tourism revenues

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly funded by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number JP20K20083.

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Surborbital Space Tourism: A Case Study on Virgin Galactic and the Environmental Impacts of the Emerging Industry

Throughout my four years at the University of Virginia (UVA), I have culminated knowledge in aerospace engineering and engineering ethics to prepare me for my capstone class and my undergraduate Science, Technology, and Society (STS) thesis. The technical project is the result of my efforts in the Spacecraft Design class with Professor Haibo Dong and Professor Michael McPherson. A class of thirty students, including me, worked on the technical project to deliver a final report on the design, analysis, and tests. I worked on the STS research paper throughout my fourth year and with Professor Joshua Earle. The following details the specifics of the senior capstone design project and the research gathered for the STS undergraduate thesis. The technical design project was to research, design, and prototype a high-powered rocket to achieve a 4,000ft altitude and deploy a payload while allowing for student research and experimentation. Three main sub-teams–Aero-structures, Propulsion, and Mechatronics & Control–worked on the high-powered rocket. As the Propulsion Team Lead, our sub-team’s main concern was designing, fabricating, and testing the 75mm motor hardware and propellant to ensure that the rocket would reach the target apogee. There is a delicate balancing act between each sub-team because any shifts in the weight of other team's designs would affect the amount of outputted thrust required for our motor. Furthermore, there were several changes in the constraints within the course itself that ranged from differing budgets, certain safety constraints from UVA Environmental Health & Safety, and timing limitations. After several iterations, we designed, fabricated, and tested a final product through non-energetic means. The motor was 21” long, and 3” in diameter, and consisted of a snap-ring casing to hold the closures and nozzle. We chose a 3” diameter to adhere to the standard typically found in commercially available high-powered motors. Team members used computer simulations to determine the geometries and chemical formula for the propellant, and they fabricated the motor using equipment at UVA. The final product showcased the class’s abundant knowledge of aerodynamics, structures, and project management, along with many more engineering skills. The STS research paper is a Technological Momentum analysis of the emerging suborbital space tourism industry with a specific focus on its environmental effects. The journey to space was exclusive, limited to a select few who underwent rigorous training and scrutiny under federal programs like Gemini and Apollo. However, with technological advancements, space travel is becoming more accessible through various companies, including Virgin Galactic, offering different methods to get to space. The increased accessibility to space stems from more capital going into the space industry, particularly in the commercial sector. Although traveling to space is exciting, it is important to consider the environmental effects of many launches happening within a short period. Firstly, I address the significance, history, and future of space tourism, focusing on Virgin Galactic as a case study because of its significant presence in space tourism. Then, I highlight the environmental impact of the rapidly rising space industry, particularly regarding launch vehicle propulsion systems, which historically harm the Earth's atmosphere. By utilizing the Technological Momentum framework, I examine the environmental consequences of increased space activities and provide recommendations for regulations to balance technological innovation with environmental preservation. Through this analysis, I show that space tourism's rise is inevitable, highlighting the need for proactive environmental regulations to mitigate its adverse effects on the Earth. The rocket that is the focus of my technical project will have extremely negligible effects on the immediate environment of the launch site. Even so, I believe there is a connection between the STS topic and the results of my capstone. The main difference between the two is the scale and the project objective. The propulsion system proposed for the technical project is a very common propulsion system used in full-scale launch vehicles: ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP). Furthermore, many launch vehicles used in the emerging space tourism industry have a very similar silhouette to the capstone class’s rocket, but at a much larger size. Although we are working with smaller rockets, it is important to consider the socioeconomic and environmental effects of all our products as we apply our engineering expertise to our respective careers. Overall, the ethical analysis of the space tourism industry will apply to the technical project, simply at a different scale.

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