Study on the spatial effect and mechanism of rural tourism development promoting rural sustainable livelihood

Rural tourism development can play a constructive and instrumental role in achieving sustainable livelihood and promoting common prosperity of urban, rural and regional areas. Based on the panel data samples of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2010 to 2020, the spatial spillover effect and its mechanism of rural tourism development promoting rural sustainable livelihood are analyzed from the overall and regional perspectives by using the methods of bivariate spatial autocorrelation test and spatial panel econometric model. The research indicates that the sustainable development of tourism and livelihood in rural areas of China shows the advantage locking of high-value provinces in time, and both show a spatial differentiation pattern decreasing from southeast to northwest, with significant spatial dependence and correlation between them in space. The development of rural tourism can exert its adaptability to the substitution effect of traditional livelihoods through the dual action mechanism of internal and external responses, expand the effect of empowerment, enhance the endogenous development power, realize the sustainable development of rural livelihoods in the region, and drive the sustainable development of rural livelihoods in the neighboring areas through the spatial spillover effect. Rural tourism development affects rural sustainable livelihood under the multi-dimensional factors of livelihood vulnerability, livelihood capital, livelihood resilience and livelihood results, showing regional heterogeneity with direct effects decreasing from the western to the central and eastern regions and spatial spillover effects decreasing from the central to the western and eastern regions.