Residents’ Attitudes towards Tourism Development in Different Nongjiale Areas

Chen+Shuo

【Abstract】The purpose of the paper is to examine attitudes of residents of three Nongjiale areas from different levels towards tourism development. Through doing this project， the researcher can explore the relationship between resident attitudes toward tourism and the development of the Nongjiale Tourism. This project helps Nongjiale tourism industry to find out the factors affecting the residents attitude and thus affecting the Nongjiale tourism of local district. Throughout the comparison of Nongjiale Districts in the high， medium， low popular levels， the study helps the medium and low popular districts learn from the high popular one by analyzing the pushing factors and learn the actions the high popular one take to influence these factors.

【Keywords】Nongjiale Tourism；tourism development；resident attitudes；pushing factors

1 Introduction

With the fast development of tourism industry in China， some tourism products are created for meeting the customers different demands and preferences. Nongjiale is one of these new tourism products. The development of Nongjiale tourism has significant meanings for the readjustment of ruralindustrial structures， accelerating all-round development of the rural economy， increasing the income of farmers， improving the quality of people life and promoting the cultural and ideological progress. However， due to the development of Nongjiale is still in primary stage， many Nongjiale areas are still trying to find their way on foot， so the operation business of the cases， Pixian Youai Village， Hangzhou Meijiawu area and Shanxi Qiachuan area achieved different results. In this thesis， the author picks three Nongjiale areas the Pixian Youai Village， Hangzhou Meijiawu area and Shanxi Qiachuan area as the case of study， and they represent respectively among the high， medium and low popular Nongjiale area based on the amount of visitors receives. The author will do research on the attitudes of local resident in those three areas towards tourism development through the questionnaires.

2 Nongjiale Tourism

2.1 Definition

At present， there are various definitions of Nongjiale Tourism in Chinese academic circles. However， there is still not a social generally acknowledged authoritative definition.There preventative standpoints are given by Bing Wang， Jiang Du and Xianglian Shu.The common point of their definite is： Nongjiale tourism makes a feature of rural area， lets local farmers or residents be the owners， use the capital of farmers land， garden， cash crops， organize the customers to travel， join farm work， leisure and custom activities for achieving the goal of economic development of rural areas. In special perspective， from the views of consumers， Nongjiale tourism is that customers seek the pleasure in the garden of peasant family， experience the rural life different totally from the city life； from the views of the owners， Nongjiale tourism is that the farmers take the advantage of the local beautiful rural landscape and natural area they are living in and attract citizens to come to enjoy the food， accommodation， travelling， shopping. While in general perspective， Nongjiale Tourism also refers to the fields of agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry， sideline occupations and fishery. So the general Nongjiale Tourism also includes the Forestry Tourism， Fishery Tourism and so on.

2.2 Emerge of Chinese Nongjiale Tourism

Chinese Nongjiale originated from foreign rural tourism， but it involves typical rural landscape and Chinese customs and culture. In China， Nongjiale Tourism emerged in middle eighties last century. Nongjiale start late， so it is just at the preliminary stage.

Nongjiale Tourism is the result at the certain stage of the development of society， economic and culture.It emerges in the era of reform and opening-up， as the income of urban and township residents grows fast， citizens consuming capacity and level of consumers rise as well. Tourism becomes a new fashion for mass consumption.Moreover，an increasing numbers of citizens have tolerated enough the overpopulation， serious environmental pollution， nervous life rhythm.For meeting the requirements of citizens，Nongjiale is developed as a tourism which emphasizes on back-to-nature and health life.Tourism appeals to people to enjoy the rest， fresh air and organic and green food.Furthermore， develop continuously along with the tourism industry， the tourism industry has already to change from the sightseeing to stop and rest， with acquire health for the tour activity of main purpose became the tourism industry a new direction lately. In addition， now there is a big gap in the development of urban and rural area.To develop the Nongjiale tourism to make the border area rich is the pioneering work of the Chinese government， to participate forwardly in the task of propping up the poor area， and it also is the new thoughtfulness summarized from practice to develop tourism.

2.3 Development of Chinese Nongjiale Tourism

In recent years， the development of Nongjiales has achieved a great progress.Nongjiale arises from Youai of Pixian in Sichuan Province in 1980s.This small village was very poor， but ecological environment here was perfect. There was a way to the residents area， one side of the way was farm land， and the other side was follower garden.Then many citizens came to buy followers， and also join the dinner and have a travel with the owners of the follower land. Gradually， this style was emulated by other farmers and even more farmers of many areas. In 1987， the first tourism named Nongjiale started in Longquanyi Village which celebrated a Peach Festival.This Festival combined the farm work， farm accommodation， travel，visiting beautiful rural sight， presenting folk-custom culture， leisure activities all together. Since 1980， the development of Nongjiale Tourism has three stage：germination stage，growth stage and boom stage. After 1990s， Nongjiale tourism germinated in many suburbs of the metropolitans. The tourism was spontaneous and had extensive management in this stage. Since 21 century， the company began to join the operation of the Nongjiale Tourism as an industry. Then some big farms and other natural resource includes the wood， agricultural，fishery resource and a wide variety of service have been integrated in the Nongjiale Tourism.At present，all domestic Nongjiale areas will treat more than 300 million visitors annually and the tourism income has been above 4 billion RMB.

2.4 Meanings of Nongjiale Tourism

2.4.1 Increase residents income and promote the development of local community

The direct benefit Nongjiale Tourism brings about is increase the income of local residents. From the economic and social development perspective，Nongjiale Tourism plays a promotion role in the local community and the field of business， food and other service industries. Nongjiale Area has been developed a bridge between the urban and countryside.There is big gap between the rural and urban area， most of the rural areas are poor and backward.The development of Nongjiale areas is good for narrowing the gap and accelerating the progress of rural urbanization. Due to the poverty of the rural areas，there is a phenomenon of workforce movement from rural to urban.Tourism belongs to labor-intensive industry. It can create a large amount of employ opportunities for local people， so it solves the urban pressure on employment and improve the personal quality of the local residents.

2.4.2 The boom of the Nongjiale accelerates the improvement of the citizens life quality.

Nongjiale areas locate around the city， so their main target group is the citizens. An increasing numbers of citizens have tolerated enough the overpopulation， serious environmental pollution， nervous life rhythm. Therefore， most of citizens desire to go back to natural and enjoy the peaceful life.

2.5 Residents attitudes towards tourism development

Two main reasons exist for the maintained emphasis on resident attitude studies： one is the fact that people living in a tourist destination care a great deal about the existing and potential impacts （e.g.， social， cultural， economic， environmental， and political） of tourism on their lives， others lives， and existing resources； the second reason is that it is important to include residents voices and concerns in tourism development planning， especially if destination marketing organizations （DMOs） or tourism management agencies are proponents of sustainable tourism development.

Within the travel and tourism literature， residents have commonly been categorized on the basis of their attitudes toward tourism and accompanying development. Residents based on their opinions of tourism，four groups emerged from the data analysis： “lovers，” “cynics，” “taxpayers，” and “innocents.”Five clusters of residents emerged：“most negative，” “moderately negative，” “ambivalent，” “moderately positive，” and “most positive.”

Tourism researchers have tested several tools to measure residents attitudes toward tourism development. One commonly used scale to measure residents attitudes is the Tourism Impact Attitude Scale （TIAS） first developed. Typically， the TIAS yields a two-factor structure. Recently， a two-factor structure of support for tourism development and contributions tourism makes to the community. Another welcome model is model of residents attitudes toward tourism that was validated in 16 rural Colorado communities with varying levels of tourism development. The model tested rural Colorado residents perceptions of tourism impacts， residents support for additional tourism development and restrictive tourism policies and special tourism taxes， and residents perception of their communitys future. Several studies have tested and improved the model in rural and urban areas.

Concerning factors that influence residents attitudes towards tourism development， citing a host of socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables. Like emotional solidarity， residents attitudes about tourism have been treated as an outcome variable.The characteristics of residents have the sociodemographic， socioeconomic， spatial， and travel behavior variables， which affect the residents attitude. Structural equation modeling which has shown how distance between residents homes and tourist attractions，level of community concern， ecocentric values， utilization of tourism resource base， community attachment， state of the local economy， economic benefits， social benefits， social costs， and cultural benefits all have either a direct or indirect effect on residents attitudes toward tourism.

3 Problem analysis

Through the research on comparison of the attitudes of local residents in Pixian Youai Village， Hangzhou Meijiawu area and Shanxi Qiachuan area， the author aims to find out the difference of their attitudes， and understand the good points that the lower popular areas can learn from the high popular area from the perspective of the residents. The final aim is to help the local government or residents to find out how to improve their business on the Nongjiale Tourism. This project has important meanings on the healthy development of Nongjiale Industry and rural economy from the perspectives of residents attitudes.

The Nongjiale districts are increasing in popularity among national tourists. Because research shows that there are differences in residents attitudes towards tourism development， the problem statement of this study therefore is： To what extent do residents attitudes towards tourism development in the Nongjiale districts （as a form of Chinese rural tourism） differ from a popular Nongjiale districts， to a medium and a less popular one？

4 Hypothesis

Following the destination life cycle， the purpose of this study is to examine whether the popularity of a Nongjiale district as a tourist attraction negatively affects the attitudes of its residents regarding tourism development and tourists in their community.

Putting this assumption the following hypothesises has been developed：

H1： The more popular （popularity defined in terms of number of tourists） a Nongjiale district is as a tourist destination， the negative is the attitudes of its residents towards tourism development and tourists.

H2： The attitudes of residents have no influence on the popularity of the Nongjiale districts.

5 Research objectives

During the research project， the researcher aims to make a comparison Residents attitudes among the high， medium and low popular Nongjiale area based on the results of residents receives. And then the author aims to use the Long Model to find out what the factors have positive and negative to the residents attitudes. By analyzing those factors， the author find out what kinds of the factors plays contributes to the residents attitudes and what the difference about the resident attitudes among the three subjects and understand how those factors can affect the development of Nongjiale Tourism.

6 Conceptual framework

The conceptual model illustrates the process of the authors research. Firstly， the author would like to collect the information of the three subjects， and then apply to the model of Long， Perdue， and Allen （1990） to figure out the residents attitudes. By comparing the social-demographic characteristics， and other variables based on the model of Long， Perdue， and Allen （1990） among three districts， the researcher would get to the effective factors that affect the tourism development from the perspective of residents attitudes. Therefore， the lower Nongjiale districts can learn from the higher popular one and improve on the factors that brings the negative influence.

The author will adapt the interviews and questionnaires as the starting points to collect the information. The stage should be like this：

（1）The author will learn the current development and performance of research subjects from the literatures and learn from the local government.

（2）The author will the questionnaire to collect the data the local residents to know the information about the information of districts and the opinions and attitudes of local residents in those three districts.

（3）The information from questionnaire will be reflected through SPSS.

（4）The characteristic， categories of local residents and the effective factors will be analyzed from the result of questionnaire.

7 Methodology

Aiming to find the result of the problem statement mentioned above according to the actual statistics， the author will collect some data and analyze the data by using the proper data collecting method and data analyzing method. Several relevant and suitable methods are described as following.

7.1 Details of data-collection methods

There are two kinds of data collection methods which can be used to collect the information， Quantitative and Qualitative data collection method. Quantitative data are “the numbers” collected through surveys or other measurement techniques. Qualitative data are “the words” collected through interviews， focus groups， participant observation， or related methods （Charlene A. Yauch and Harold J. Steudel， 2003）.

Qualitative data collection method plays an important role in impact evaluation through providing useful information to understand the knowledge theory about the improving service quality. Documents review has been used in this research， which is a main and useful way to get the reliable data. The author will use this method to do the Nongjiale Districts study， including the areas location， history， development and action taken. All the books， magazines and articles from the Internet can be the documents for the author to review， which are helpful for author to take a look at the amount of the visitors and the performance of the Nongjiale areas and choose the three typical areas as the study subjects.

The typical quantitative method can be used in the authors research， which is questionnaire.Paper-pencil questionnaires will be used in the research for 100 residents in each area.The questionnaire developed for the project involved several variables affect residents attitude.Those pertinent to this paper include a series of 41 tourism attitude scales based on previous work.Questions related to characteristics of respondents and several demographic questions were also asked and are used in this analysis.This is easy， fast and continent way to collect data. The closed easy multiple questions listed on the questionnaires will be relevant to the service quality and their satisfaction degree.

Moreover， the open questions of pencil-questionnaires are also qualitative data. The nationality and region should be mentioned in the questionnaires. All the primary data will help the author to find the answer for this research.

7.2 Details of data analysis methods

After collecting the data， the author needs to analysis these data by using the methods， the techniques and the tools.There are also many data analysis tools which can be used for cleaning and comparing these data.The author also needs the tool SPSS computer programs to help to manage the data.SPSS can be used to handle large datasets， and the author also can find trend of change by transforming these data into charts.SPSS can summary the profile of the survey participants by looking at their social-demographic characteristics and finding the frequencies and percentages. For the closed questions of questionnaires， the author will use Descriptive to calculate the data and compute the mode， the median and the mean and the standard deviation with SPSS，and then the author will figure out the relationship between the tourism performance and the residents attitudes towards tourism development by using the correlation.

8 Results

Though， leisure and entertainment， breathing fresh air and suburban tourism are urban residents tourism motivation， but from the point of view of the results of the survey， a travel experiences in a variety of travel motivation motivated because people are expected with the minimum investment in tourism destination get maximum benefit. That is to say， spend less money and time to maximize meet their travel needs. Recently， personal benefits of tourism have become popular. Those who felt tourism should play a major role in the economic development mix and personally benefited the most from tourism perceived high levels of negative impacts of tourism.

A community is economically dependent on tourism； the more likely it will be in support of tourism development. Moreover， those who stand to gain the most financially have the highest support for tourism development. In addition， despite potential negative impacts of tourism， communities tend to favor tourism development. Referring to age， older residents have been found to communicate more negative perceptions of tourism development than younger residents. Taking account of the tourism center， the neighborhood with the most negative attitudes about tourism was located in the tourism center and received the most negative impacts. As distance from the tourism zone increases， positive impacts are perceived less favorably. Two studies have addressed the role of nonresidents in developing tourism. In general they found slightly more than half disagreed or strongly disagreed that tourism development by nonresidents should be allowed.

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