Human Poverty Alleviation through Rural Women’s Tourism Entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT

The rapid development of rural tourism is encouraging rural women to actively participate in tourism entrepreneurship. Rural women’s involvement in tourism entrepreneurship has not only contributed to economic poverty reduction but has also provided feasible paths for alleviating knowledge poverty, rights poverty and other features that promote the overall alleviation of human poverty. This study investigated the multiple dimensions of poverty alleviation of women through tourism entrepreneurship in rural China. Qualitative research methods were applied in this study. Through a thematic analysis, five dimensions of rural women’s poverty alleviation through tourism entrepreneurship were identified, namely physical and mental health poverty alleviation, cultural literacy poverty alleviation, participation in public affairs poverty alleviation, living environment poverty alleviation and self-value poverty alleviation. Suggested actions for human poverty alleviation through tourism entrepreneurship are also provided, which will promote sustainability in rural women’s tourism entrepreneurship.

摘要

乡村地区旅游业的迅速发展鼓励乡村女性积极地参与旅游创业活动。乡村女性进行旅游创业不仅有助于摆脱经济贫困，更为摆脱知识、权利等贫困提供了可行的路径，将促进人文贫困的全面摆脱。鉴于此，本文尝试考察我国乡村女性通过旅游创业实现人文脱贫的多维度内涵。文章进行了质性研究，通过主题分析法得到乡村女性通过旅游创业实现人文脱贫的五个维度，即身心健康脱贫、文化素养脱贫、事务参与脱贫、生活环境脱贫、自我价值脱贫。同时，文章提出旅游创业实现人文脱贫的策略，以期促进乡村女性旅游创业的持续发展。

KEYWORDS:

• Rural women
• tourism entrepreneurship
• poverty
• poverty alleviation
• thematic analysis

關鍵詞:

• 乡村女性
• 旅游创业
• 贫困
• 脱贫
• 主题分析

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Feng Lu, the deputy director of Tourism Administration, Suzhou, Jiangsu for supporting this study. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions that helped to improve the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Project by National Tourism Administration ‘Research on government guidance mechanism for rural tourism entrepreneurship in urban suburb’ [16TAAG025]; talent training project of China National Tourism Administration ‘Research on the mechanism and paths of rural tourism poverty alleviation from the perspective of inclusive development’ [WMYC20171020]; special fund for basic research of Central University ‘Research on leisure agriculture and rural tourism sustainable development in Jing-Jin-Ji under the environment of mass entrepreneurship and innovation’ [019520017]; National Natural Science Foundation of China ‘Research on customer evaluation and effect of service product innovation’ [71672089].

Notes on contributors

Hong Xu

Hong Xu is Professor in the College of Tourism and Service Management at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Her research interests are in the tourism industry economy, destination competitiveness, tourism service innovation and strategic management (E-mail: [email protected]).

Caicai Wang

Caicai Wang is PhD candidate of the College of Tourism and Service Management at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Her research interests are in rural tourism and tourism industry development (E-mail: [email protected]).

Jing Wu

Jing Wu is Lecturer in the Department of General English at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Her research interests are in cross-cultural communication, educational sociology and pedagogy (E-mail: [email protected]).

Yan Liang

Yan Liang is PhD candidate of the College of Tourism and Service Management at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Her research interest is in destination marketing (E-mail: [email protected]).

Yan Jiao

Yan Jiao is Lecturer in the College of Tourism and Service Management at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Her research interests are in cultural tourism and rural tourism (E-mail: [email protected]).

Shama Nazneen

Shama Nazneen is PhD candidate of the College of Tourism and Service Management at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Her research interests are in the China–Pakistan economic corridor and destination image (E-mail: [email protected]).