Title: An analysis of "rurality" from the perspective of tourist using online text: a case of Yayou Gou Village in Shandong Province, China

Authors: Zekun Shang; Qianda Zhuang

Addresses: Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Malaysia ' Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Malaysia

Abstract: "Rurality" is the core attraction of rural tourism, but the current study of rural spiritual culture, rural life landscape, and other rural characteristics is insufficient, and fails to reflect the tourists' perception system of rural elements. Based on the grounded theory and content analysis theory, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the rural elements of the Yayou Gou Village, and probes into the ontology of rurality to put forward the practical significance of the construction of rural tourism. The results show that nostalgia is the core demand of tourists, which can increase or satisfy the feeling of homesickness. A new method for mining landscape perception attributes is proposed, so that tourists feel the rurality of Yayou Gou Village on a material and spiritual level. The development of the rural tourism industry should adapt to local conditions, and fully tap the local rural characteristics to avoid the homogenisation of resources.

Keywords: rural tourism; rurality; landscape perception; rural landscape; landscape attribute; landscape character; content analysis; landscape element; rural development; online review text; Yayou Gou Village.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2023.133199

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2023 Vol.13 No.5, pp.429 - 443

Received: 15 Jun 2022
Received in revised form: 09 Oct 2022
Accepted: 13 Jan 2023
Published online: 01 Sep 2023 *

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