Su, Z.; Xian, K.; Lu, D.; Wang, W.; Zheng, Y.; Khotphat, T. Rural Tourism Households Adapting to Seasonality: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study. Sustainability2023, 15, 14158.
Su, Z.; Xian, K.; Lu, D.; Wang, W.; Zheng, Y.; Khotphat, T. Rural Tourism Households Adapting to Seasonality: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study. Sustainability 2023, 15, 14158.
Su, Z.; Xian, K.; Lu, D.; Wang, W.; Zheng, Y.; Khotphat, T. Rural Tourism Households Adapting to Seasonality: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study. Sustainability2023, 15, 14158.
Su, Z.; Xian, K.; Lu, D.; Wang, W.; Zheng, Y.; Khotphat, T. Rural Tourism Households Adapting to Seasonality: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study. Sustainability 2023, 15, 14158.
Abstract
Although tourism seasonality significantly influences the livelihood activities of rural tourism households, limited research has explored how they adapt their livelihood strategies to achieve optimal outcomes. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design that combines thematic analysis and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we investigated the relationship between the livelihood strategies and outcomes of rural tourism households under the influence of tourism seasonality at the Guilin Karst World Heritage Site. The results indicate that livelihood strategies adopted by rural tourism households include "Tourism Persistence,” "Seasonal Employment,” and “Seasonal Farming” during the off-season, and “Extending Working Hours,” “Increasing Staffing Input,” and “Increasing Capital Input” during the peak season. Furthermore, these strategies form flexible combinations to realize livelihood outcomes, with “Extending Working Hours” being a necessary condition. The findings also revealed that the four configurations of seasonal livelihood strategies in the two patterns significantly contributed to high livelihood outcomes. One is named “Peak-Season Driven Pattern,” where “Extending Working Hours” and “Increasing Staffing Input” are the core conditions; the other is named “Peak-Off Blend-Driven Pattern,” where “Extending Working Hours,” “Increasing Capital Input,” and the absence of “Tourism Persistence” are the core conditions. These findings provide theoretical and practical insights for sustainable livelihood research.
Social Sciences, Tourism, Leisure, Sport and Hospitality
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
