Political Economy of Tourism Development in Rural China: Case of Luting Township, Zhejiang

ABSTRACT

In current China’s rural development, sustainable discourses are used by decision-makers at all levels in order to create a viable ecological system and sustainable growth in rural areas, under the pressure of urbanization. Through a case study of a rural sustainable tourism planning project in China, this study examines the interweaving political and economic initiatives behind the tourism planning decision-making, in particular, through the discussion of political cadres’ discourses and social actions with the application of Jessop’s Strategic-Relational Approach (SRA). The result indicates the dual-relationship between structural constraints from the state and strategic responses from local level political cadres result in the decision-making in rural tourism development. The study of these political cadres at different levels also help to overview the rural tourism governance and power relationship in tourism planning.

KEYWORDS:

• Political economy
• sustainable development
• rural tourism
• strategic-relational approach
• China

Acknowledgements

Yi published in the area of tourism policy networks, tourism in China, and particularly interested in research topics such as tourism policy-making, tourism governance, rural tourism, etc. She is currently working in University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. Thomas published in the area of family firms, small-scale business activities in China. He is currently working in Hang Seng Management College in Hong Kong.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.