Willingness to pay and preferences for rural tourism attributes among urban residents: A discrete choice experiment in China

Rural development policy creation should consider recent significant changes in emerg-ing sectors such as rural tourism. This study conducts a choice experiment (CE) in six Chinese cities to examine two things: urban residents' willingness to pay (WTP) and their heterogeneous preferences for rural attributes. Results indicate that respondents are willing to pay for the attributes such as friendly service, traditional culture, local style accommodations, and exposure to nature, with those having higher income also exhibit a higher WTP. Subsequent simulation reveals that the change of rurality greatly impacts the WTP for alternatives. Socio-demographic characteristics are found to be important sources of preference heterogeneity. Using the latent class model (LCM), respondents are divided into rural-comfort seekersand rural culture and amusement lovers. These findings suggest the transformation of rural areas into diversified consumption spaces with a heightened emphasis on rurality conservation.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Economic Society of Australia, Queensland.

Automated summary

This study conducted a choice experiment in six Chinese cities to examine urban residents' willingness to pay and preferences for rural attributes. The results showed that respondents are willing to pay for attributes such as friendly service, traditional culture, local style accommodations, and exposure to nature. Higher income individuals exhibited a higher willingness to pay. The study also found that the transformation of rural areas into diversified consumption spaces with an emphasis on rurality conservation is important.