Farmers Participation Willingness and Sustainable Development of Agricultural Heritage System Tourism: A Case Study in Wang Jinzhuang, China

Abstract

The development of sustainable agricultural heritage system tourism (AHST) primarily relies on how local farmers view tourism and whether they choose to join. This study explores the key factors that shape their choices to engage in AHST and to analyse the configuration effect from a holistic perspective to examine the causal relationships between influential factors and farmers’ willingness to participate. Six influential factors, including farmer type, tourism-related knowledge and skills, economic benefits, heritage conservation, community attachment, and level of government support, were identified as important antecedents. Taking Wang Jinzhuang in China as a case, this study adopted fsQCA to identify the condition configurations leading to farmers’ willingness to participate in AHST. The findings show that community attachment is a core factor influencing farmers’ willingness to participate in AHST. There was a total of nine configuration solutions, including four configuration solutions for artisan farmers and five configuration solutions for non-artisan farmers. The research outcomes provide implications for government decision-makers and managers of agricultural heritage sites to develop policies and implement innovative measures to promote the sustainable development of AHST.

Keywords: Agricultural Heritage System Tourism (AHST), Community-Based Tourism (CBT), Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), Farmers, Sustainable Development

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