How Does Sustainable Rural Tourism Cause Rural Community Development?

Rural tourism has been developing vigorously, and rural community functions are becoming diversified in China. Therefore, this paper takes China as an example to explore how sustainable rural tourism affects rural community development in the long and short run over the period 1994–2020. Sustainable rural tourism can be measured using two indicators: total rural tourism revenue and number of rural tourists. Rural community development is measured by the number of rural community service institutions. Then, by incorporating other variables and using the autoregressive distributed lag bounds co-integration technique to perform an empirical analysis, we found that, whether in the long or short run, sustainable rural tourism always plays a positive and significant role in promoting rural community development. In particular, in the long run, rural infrastructure construction, rural ecological environment, agricultural fiscal expenditure, agricultural technological progress, and rural human capital are identified as the major forces behind rural community development. Meanwhile, in the short run, rural infrastructure construction, rural ecological environment, agricultural fiscal expenditure, agricultural technological progress, and rural human capital are also major drivers of rural community development. This paper contributes to the current literature by filling in the existing gaps in several aspects.

El desarrollo de Aras de los Olmos: un análisis de caso en el marco de la economía del conocimiento y la innovación social / / / \ \ \ The development of Aras de los Olmos: a case analysis in the framework of the knowledge economy and social innovation

Resumen: En este artículo realizamos un análisis del Proyecto Big History, una acción enfocada al desarrollo sostenible e impulsado desde la localidad de Aras de los Olmos, València (España), a partir de una perspectiva teórica basada en la economía del conocimiento y la innovación social. La evaluación sintética de los logros y del rendimiento alcanzado por la implementación del proyecto nos permite conocer y poner en valor los elementos claves que han favorecido el crecimiento y desarrollo del territorio. La metodología aplicada en la presente investigación es un Análisis de Políticas Públicas resultado de la implementación de la Investigación Acción Participada y la Ecología de Saberes en el marco teórico del neoinstitucionalismo de la gobernanza democrática. Los principales resultados nos permiten constatar que la creatividad, la co-creación de conocimiento, la participación y el pacto de gobierno han sido elementos clave para el éxito del mismo y su repercusión en el desarrollo de toda la Comarca de la Serranía en la Comunitat Valenciana y sus comarcas limítrofes. Palabras clave: Innovación social, desarrollo rural comunitario, gobernanza, co-creación, economía del conocimiento. Abstract: This article contains an analysis of the Big History Project, an action focused on sustainable development and promoted from the village of Aras de los Olmos, Valencia (Spain), from a theoretical perspective based on the knowledge economy and social innovation. The synthetic evaluation of the results and performance achieved by the implementation of the project allows us to know and value the key elements that have favored the growth and development of the territory. The methodology applied in this research is a Public Policy Analysis resulting from the implementation of the Participatory Action Research and the Ecology of Knowledge in the theoretical framework of the neoinstitutionalism of democratic governance. The main results allow us to confirm that creativity, co-creation of knowledge, participation and the governance pact have been key elements for the success of the project and its impact on the development of the whole Serranía region in the Valencian Community and its neighboring regions. Key words: social innovation, rural community development, governance, co-creation, knowledge economy.

An Evaluation of Local Government and SURE-P Implementation Challenges on Rural Community Development: A Case of Selected Local Government in Niger State, Nigeria

Rural areas play an essential role in the national economy, the environment, and society, contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage and the sustainable income of peasants in the rural areas in Nigeria hence, diverse strategies for rural community development. However, rural community development efforts by local governments and policies hindered by challenges. SURE-P was an intervention by the government of Nigeria after the partial removal of the subsidy and resolved to invest the proceeds in pursuing rural development across Nigeria. Rural development is a multifaceted phenomenon that requires a policy with multi-side sword effects in curbing the challenges. The research objective was to examine the challenges of local government and SURE-P implementation on rural community development in the selected local government in Niger, Nigeria. The study employed primary data collection and qualitative analytical method analysis. The research founds that SURE-P implementation challenges hindered the local government’s efforts in meeting the rural community development objective. It is recommended that, need for thorough community’s needs identification, community participation, and adequate funding with a holistic process devoid of political interference as a viable mechanism for curbing rural development challenges.

Factors That Influence Rural Entrepreneurship: Case-Study Evidence from Torbat-E Heydarie, Kadkan District

Entrepreneurship is an important instrument in planning and realizing rural community development. Owing to current problems in societies, focusing on the rural entrepreneurship is of utmost importance. Entrepreneurship by creating new opportunities for employment and income plays an important role in improving socioeconomic conditions of villages. The aim of this study is to assess the factors influencing the development of rural entrepreneurship in a case study of villages in Torbat-e Heydarieh, Kadkan district. The research method was descriptive-analytic, and the data collection method was library and field studies. For data analysis, One-sample t-test with principal component analysis was used. The statistical population of the study was the villagers of Kadkan district of Torbat-e Heydarieh, from which 240 people were asked to complete a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the Content and face validity with expert judgement. Reliability of the questionnaire was examined by Cronbach's alpha coefficient which for all studied domains was above 0.75 which indicated that questionnaire was satisfactory. The results indicated that economic factor was the most influential issue in the rural entrepreneurship. The results also showed that rural entrepreneurship provides a good context for creating jobs in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and it is an important factor for achieving sustainable rural development.

Factors That Influence Rural Entrepreneurship: Case-Study Evidence from Torbat-E Heydarie, Kadkan District

Entrepreneurship is an important instrument in planning and realizing rural community development. Owing to current problems in societies, focusing on the rural entrepreneurship is of utmost importance. Entrepreneurship by creating new opportunities for employment and income plays an important role in improving socioeconomic conditions of villages. The aim of this study is to assess the factors influencing the development of rural entrepreneurship in a case study of villages in Torbat-e Heydarieh, Kadkan district. The research method was descriptive-analytic, and the data collection method was library and field studies. For data analysis, One-sample t-test with principal component analysis was used. The statistical population of the study was the villagers of Kadkan district of Torbat-e Heydarieh, from which 240 people were asked to complete a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the Content and face validity with expert judgement. Reliability of the questionnaire was examined by Cronbach's alpha coefficient which for all studied domains was above 0.75 which indicated that questionnaire was satisfactory. The results indicated that economic factor was the most influential issue in the rural entrepreneurship. The results also showed that rural entrepreneurship provides a good context for creating jobs in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and it is an important factor for achieving sustainable rural development.