Networks, citizenship behaviours and destination effectiveness: a comparative study of two Chinese rural tourism destinations

Abstract

While community-based rural tourism has experienced rapid growth in China in recent years, little is known about the social mechanisms underlying the behaviours of tourism operators regarding common destination interests. Comparing two Chinese rural tourism cases, this study investigates four types of networks among local tourism operators and explores how the network structures in destinations are related to the community citizenship behaviours of tourism operators and other tourism-involved residents. The study also examines the effects of community citizenship behaviours on destination effectiveness in rural tourism development and management. The findings highlight the possibility that network structures among tourism operators could critically influence their community citizenship behaviours, which contribute to destination effectiveness. This study contributes both empirically and methodologically to the field of social network analysis in tourism, within the specific context of rural communities in China.

网络，公民行为和目标效果：比较研究两个中国乡村旅游景区

近年来在中国，以社区为基础的乡村旅游经历着快速发展，但鲜为人知的是背后旅游经营者针对共同目标利益的行为的社会机制。通过对比两个中国乡村旅游的案例，这项研究探讨四种当地的旅游运营商之间的网络，并探讨了目的地的网络结构与旅游经营者和其他有关居民的社会公民行为是如何联系起来的。该研究还考察了社区公民行为对乡村旅游开发与管理的目标有效性的影响。这一发现强调了旅游业经营者之间的网络结构可以批判性地影响他们的社会公民行为的可能性，这有利于提高目标有效性。这项研究有助于在中国农村这个特定环境下旅游业社会网络分析领域的经验和方法的提升。

Keywords:

• rural tourism
• social network analysis
• community citizenship behaviours
• destination effectiveness
• social capital
• tourism operators

关键词:

• 乡村旅游业
• 社会网络分析
• 社会公民行为
• 目标有效性
• 社会资本
• 旅游经营者

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note

Notes

1. Further investigation revealed that the advices from the tourism company were not provided by the company as an organization, but from its local employees in an individual and personal manner. These advice-providing actions were recognized in the advice network and labelled as from the tourism company, but they should not be simply treated as the tourism company's organizational behaviour.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tianyu Ying

Dr. Tianyu Ying is a lecturer in the Department of Tourism, University of Otago, New Zealand. His research interests lie in the information elements in both the demand and supply sides of the tourism system, and the sustainability issues in tourism from a social perspective. He also has a methodological interest in applying social network analysis on various topics related to travel and tourism.

Jiajiang Jiang

Ms. Jiajiang Jiang is an assistant researcher in the Institute of Sociology, Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Zhejiang, China. She received her master's degree in tourism planning from Zhejiang University in 2010. Her research interests lie in the areas of tourism planning, social network analysis, and lifestyle studies.

Yongguang Zhou

Dr. Yongguang Zhou is an associate professor in the Department of Tourism Management, Zhejiang University, China. His research interests mainly include tourism planning and destination management, sociology of tourism, and cultural heritage tourism.