Optimization Approaches of Multi-Dimensional Environments in Rural Space Reproduction Driven by Tourism

Abstract

Rural tourism is an important driving force for the transformation of rural society in the process of urbanization. However, besides promoting rural economy, it also interrupts the development of the rural living, human, manage and economic multi-dimensional environments. Space reconstruction in rural settlements is an important means to optimize multi-dimensional environments and revitalize rural tourism. Focusing on two types of rural settlements, namely the “relocation village” and the “sightseeing and settlement symbiosis village”, this study has revealed the affecting mechanism of space reconstruction in rural tourist locations on the local multi-dimensional environment by establishing a multi-dimensional environment evaluation system through an analytic, hierarchical process. Subsequently, based on the theoretical perspective of the reproduction of the space and the paradigm of the three-fold model, a comprehensive optimization path of rural multi-dimensional environments has been proposed. The results show that in the space reconstruction process driven by tourism: (1) the multi-dimensional environments of the “sightseeing and settlement symbiosis village” generally develop better than the “relocation village”; (2) the ecological environment is the direct benefit while the management environment and economic environment are the bottlenecks; (3) the “sightseeing and settlement symbiosis village” is more appealing to tourists who are interested in rural tourism since it keeps more rustic characteristics than the “relocation village”; (4) in order to optimize the multi-dimensional environments, “relocation village” should pay more attention to the space needs of residents, improve space utilization rates, and increase the residents’ sense of belonging; (5) “sightseeing and settlement symbiosis village” needs to resolve the contradiction between the tourism and living demands, improve the reproduction process driven by diversified entities, and reconstruct the neighborhood network under rural tourism. © 2022 by the authors.