Title: A sustainable tourism framework for monitoring residents' satisfaction with agritourism in Chongdugou Village, China

Authors: Fujun Shen, Stuart P. Cottrell

Addresses: Environment, Society and Design Division, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. ' Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

Abstract: This paper examines predictors of resident satisfaction with agritourism among four communities of an agritourism village in China (n = 383). Four sustainability dimensions (economic, social, ecological and institutional) were based on 3 to 5 survey items with reliability coefficients ranging from 0.55 to 0.75. Perceived satisfaction was a four-item measure of resident satisfaction. Structural equation modelling partially supported hypotheses that all four latent dimensions were significant predictors of satisfaction. Institutional was the strongest predictor followed by the economic and socio-cultural explaining 80% of the variance in resident satisfaction. Findings highlight need to include all four dimensions when monitoring sustainable agritourism development.

Keywords: sustainable tourism; predictors; sustainability dimensions; monitoring; resident satisfaction; agritourism; customer satisfaction; tourism policy; China; structural equation modelling; rural tourism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2008.019277

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.368 - 375

Published online: 06 Jul 2008 *

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