A Study On The Operating Mode Of Rural Tourism

Rural tourism, which originates from the middle of 19^th century, after more than 150 years' development, becomes more and more popular with the tourists. The content and form of rural tourism are becoming more and more colorful, and the management is becoming more and more mature. Recently, with the development of civilization, the conversion of tourism demand and the construction of the new socialism countryside, rural tourism has come into a new stage of rapid development. However, the situation varies between different areas. Of all the restrictive factors, operating mode is the key factor, and it even determines the success of rural development.Operating mode is a series of pattern or method about how to reach the goal or gain profit through the integration of product element and the utilization of organizational and managerial means. As for the operating mode of rural tourism, it mainly includes who is in charge of operating, how to operate and how to divide responsibility, power and benefit among different stakeholders. There are still several problems existing in the field of rural tourism operation: lacking of integration planning consciousness; low-level operation and management; the ambiguity of power and responsibility; disintegrating restrict mechanism. All of these factors will influence the healthy and sustainable development of rural tourism. An effective and reasonable operating mode could weaken and even eliminate all of these disadvantages.This paper analyses the stakeholders which are related to the operation of rural tourism and the operating mode of rural tourism systematically using the methods of contrast, analysis, case study and so on. The stakeholders related to the construction of rural tourism operating mode include rural community, governmental institution, tourism enterprise, tourist, public, non-governmental organization, co-operator and rival. And the first three are the most vital factors. Based on the public goods theory, property rights theory, stakeholder theory, and with the analysis of operating situation and stakeholders, this paper puts forward several typical operating modes:self-determination operating mode, "corporation + owner" mode, holistic leasehold mode, "community + corporation+owner" mode, country corporation mode and so on. It is obvious that these modes will change with the situation changing. And it is recommended that different areas would better choose the operating mode according to their own conditions. In chapter 4, it offers two case studies about Changdao and Hekou, which introduce the successful implementation of the operating mode.