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Journal of Resources and Ecology >

2023 , Vol. 14 >Issue 5: 1034 - 1043

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2023.05.014

Rural Tourism and Rural Revitalization

The Coupling of Rural Revitalization and Rural Tourism in Former Deep Poverty Areas—Taking Didigu Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County as an Example

  • ZHOU Wenying , 1 ,
  • LIU Qiongying 1 ,
  • LI Qiaoyi , 2, *
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  • 1. Leshan Vocational and Technical College, Leshan, Sichuan 614000, China
  • 2. Sichuan Vocational and Technical College, Suining, Sichuan 629000, China
*LI Qiaoyi, E-mail:

ZHOU Wenying, E-mail:

Received date: 2022-11-21

  Accepted date: 2023-03-27

  Online published: 2023-08-02

Supported by

The Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology Project(21RKX0301)

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Abstract

The implementation of the rural revitalization strategy is a major deployment strategy made by the Party Central Committee on the “agriculture-rural areas-peasants” work. As a special industrial form, rural tourism fully conforms to the general standards of the rural revitalization strategy in terms of economy, society, culture, ecology, and other key aspects. Therefore, it is an important driving force and an effective way to solve the “agriculture-rural areas-peasants” problems and to realize the rural revitalization strategy. This study combines the rural revitalization of ethnic villages and rural tourism in former deep poverty areas, and explores the coupling and coordination between rural tourism and rural revitalization. On the basis of consulting the relevant literature and through qualitative and quantitative research methods, an evaluation index system for the coupling and coordination of rural tourism and rural revitalization in ethnic villages in previously deep poverty areas was constructed. Taking Didigu Village in Ebian Yi Autonomous County as a research case, this study analyzed the comprehensive development level, coupling degree and coupling coordination of its rural tourism and rural revitalization system, then selected the factors and indicators which affect the coordinated development of the coupling of rural tourism and rural revitalization in ethnic villages in order to discuss the leading factors which restrict regional development, and finally put forward targeted optimization countermeasures and suggestions. The results show that rural tourism plays a significant role in guiding rural revitalization, and the interaction between rural tourism and rural revitalization is increasingly enhanced, with large room for future growth. For the former deep poverty minority village, the government’s policies, funds, talents and technologies for rural revitalization and rural tourism development play an important role in their coupled development. In order to further improve the coupling degree of rural revitalization and rural tourism, one suggestion is that the government should firmly exercise a top-level design function to improve the quality and efficiency of rural revitalization in order to accelerate the revitalization of rural culture and to drive the improvement of rural tourism quality, thus improving the quality of rural tourism and promoting the revitalization of rural areas.

Key words： rural tourism; rural vitalization; former deep poverty areas; ethnic villages

Cite this article

ZHOU Wenying , LIU Qiongying , LI Qiaoyi . The Coupling of Rural Revitalization and Rural Tourism in Former Deep Poverty Areas—Taking Didigu Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County as an Example[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2023 , 14(5) : 1034 -1043 . DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2023.05.014

1 Introduction

The implementation of the rural revitalization strategy was a major decision made by the Party Central Committee on the “agriculture-rural areas- peasants” work. Rural revitalization is a diversified and systematic project, which includes not only economic, social and cultural revitalization, but also comprehensive revitalization, including governance innovation and ecological civilization progress (Wei, 2019). In 2019, China’s rural tourism reception reached 3.09 billion, accounting for half of all domestic tourism. As a special industrial form, rural tourism fully conforms to the general requirements of the rural revitalization strategy in terms of economy, society, culture, ecology, and other key aspects. It is an important driving force and an effective way to solve the “agriculture-rural areas-peasants” problems and to realize the rural revitalization strategy. Rural revitalization provides good conditions for the ecological environment, cultural resources, talents, funds and policy support for the development of rural tourism, and it is also a strong guarantee for rural tourism, which can promote the upgrading of rural tourism (He, 2021). Therefore, there is an obvious coupling relationship between them.
Most of the deep poverty areas in China are in the border areas and ethnic minority areas, which are the overlapping areas of underdeveloped economies and fragile ecosystems, and they are also the areas with weak rural revitalization. Effectively connecting the requirements of the rural revitalization strategy with the actual development of ethnic areas and finding the best combination of the two have become important topics in promoting the economic and social development in ethnic areas (He, 2019).
Ethnic regions have distinctive national characteristics, good cultural preservation, excellent ecological environmental conditions, and other advantages, thus they have unique tourism attraction qualities with dual attributes and values of culture and economy. Based on local empirical research, the development of rural tourism was found to be an effective way to achieve rural revitalization in ethnic areas, and it can stimulate the promotion of the rural economy, culture, governance, ecology and other dimensions (Sun et al., 2020).

2 Coupling relationship between rural tourism and rural revitalization

Coupling is a physical concept, which refers to the phenomenon where systems or motion forms interact with each other through factor exchanges, which can reflect the degree of interdependence and mutual restriction among the various systems.
There is an obvious coupling relationship between rural tourism and rural revitalization. Rural revitalization is a powerful booster of rural tourism development, and the development of rural tourism is an important breakthrough for achieving rural revitalization. Rural revitalization is the guarantee of rural tourism and promotes the upgrading of rural tourism. The ultimate goals of rural tourism and rural revitalization are the same. The main participants and beneficiaries are farmers. Rural tourism and rural revitalization interact with and promote each other, thus achieving coordinated development.

3 Previous research in the literature review

Based on the distinctive Chinese characteristics of the rural revitalization strategy, foreign scholars mostly focus on “rural development”, “rural construction” and “rural rejuvenation”, providing a theoretical basis and reference for the research on rural revitalization in China. However, most domestic scholars’ research on rural revitalization focuses on policy interpretation and theoretical analysis, and the suggestions put forward are relatively vague and less implementable. In addition, the research methods on rural revitalization focus on qualitative description, and empirical evaluation analysis is lacking. As for the relationship between rural tourism and rural revitalization, domestic scholars focus on two aspects: exploring the high-quality development mode of rural tourism under the background of rural revitalization (Xu and Wang, 2019；Liang and Pang, 2021); and analyzing the underlying role of rural tourism in guiding rural revitalization (He, 2018; Tang and Guo, 2018).
There are few studies on the coupling relationship between rural revitalization and rural tourism. In the aspect of coupling mechanism research, scholars have conducted hierarchical analysis and dynamic mechanism research on the coupling relationship between rural revitalization and rural tourism (Liao and Chen, 2017). In the aspect of empirical research, the research scale mainly focuses on the macro perspective. For example, Nie and others conducted a coupling study on the rural revitalization strategy and rural tourism development plan of Hebei Province (Nie, 2019); Ma (2019) calculated the coupling coordination degree of rural tourism and rural revitalization in Shanxi Province; Pang analyzed the coupling degree between rural tourism and rural revitalization in Henan Province (Pang, 2019); Dong and others studied the space-time coupling state of rural revitalization and rural tourism in Shandong Province (Dong et al, 2020); and Zhao et al. studied the coupling relationship between rural revitalization and rural tourism in Fuchuan Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi (Zhao and Lu, 2020). The research methods mainly involve the analytic hierarchy process, entropy method, grey correlation method, coupling coordination model, coupling evolution model and expert interview method. In terms of the coupling evaluation systems, the existing research basically sets rural revitalization and rural tourism as the first level indicators, and focuses on the selection of the second level indicators. Overall, there are still some deficiencies in the relevant research from domestic scholars. First, the evaluation index system of rural revitalization is still lacking in scientific demonstration. Second, there are some limitations in the research methods, mainly in the qualitative theoretical discussion and the coupling coordination model. Third, there is a lack of relevant research specifically aimed at the ethnic minority areas and the deep poverty areas.

4 Construction of an evaluation system

The construction of an evaluation index system is a key contribution of this study. In order to ensure the operability of the evaluation index system, the main data sources include primary data and secondary data. The primary information was mainly obtained through interviews and field surveys. Based on the research experiences of Liang et al., Xu et al. (Xu and Wang, 2019; Liang and Pang, 2021) and others, the information on the interviews is shown in Tables 1 and 2. Secondary information was obtained from various secondary sources, such as the relevant literature, Didigu Village’s WeChat, official accounts, media reports, and statistical yearbooks around the development history, development status and tourism model of Didigu Village, all of which provided basic data support for the study.
Table 1 Interview information
Interviewees Interview topics
Head of Didigu Village; secretary of the Party or League branch The process of eliminating poverty and becoming rich in Didigu Village, the development process and status quo of rural tourism, the management mode, future development planning, and governmental support
Various shop owners Entrepreneurial process, business history, business status, development experience, future planning
Employees of various stores Participation history, income and development experience
All kinds of passengers Tourism experience, satisfaction points and development suggestions
Table 2 Corresponding table of rural revitalization and rural tourism coupling
Rural revitalization
strategic requirement		 Manifestation Rural tourism target
Industrial prosperity The tertiary industry drives the secondary industry to promote the primary industry Tourism products
Planting walnut, paulownia, peony, alpine green tea, etc.
A relatively complete industrial chain of agricultural and sideline products (walnut oil, amber peach kernel, tung oil, hand-made tea, etc.) has been formed and the products are sold to Ebian, Leshan, Chengdu, Chongqing, etc.
Many people buy Yi embroidery as well as the agricultural and sideline products
Ecological livability The cleaning personnel only clean some public areas. The villagers do their own cleaning and home stay, which has formed a good system Tourism environment
For every festival (Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, the Yi New Year, the Spring Festival), everyone in the village will gather together to clean up, and the villagers’ representatives will spontaneously check to see if there are any neglected corners of the public cleanliness
The food of the Yi people in this village (Paoshui wine, Tuotuo meat, fried potato, etc.) is very good, and they live in the new Yi village, which is mainly in red, yellow and black with bright colors
The environment is very good. The flowing water in the ditches is very clear, and there is only minimal amounts of garbage
Country style civilization Always insist on providing training for employees to improve their service attitude and service awareness Tourism services
Vigorously protect the traditional culture of the Yi people, such as their food, drink, daily life, traditional festivals and ceremonies
The Didigu Village Folk Museum (Village History Museum) was built
It has a strong Yi atmosphere, and the Yi People are warm and hospitable, polite and considerate to tourists
Effective governance The village committee consists of four people, who can manage the whole village well Tourism brand
There is little money invested in sanitation. There are two people in the scenic area, but the environment is quite good
Meetings will be held every month for villagers and merchants, strengthening the service awareness, improving the service level, etc.
There is a night school for farmers to teach some knowledge to the farmers and merchants
The village committee meets every Tuesday and Monday to intensively deal with any problems
The village cadres are in charge of the general command, and the villagers should follow them
Affluence A share-holding cooperative mechanism enables all villagers to shake off poverty and become rich Tourism benefits
Life is very good now. Many people have bought houses in Ebian County and Leshan
The villagers can earn about 100000 yuan a year, which was previously unimaginable
46 jobs were provided, and most of the staff were villagers from neighboring villages

4.1 Construction of the coupling evaluation index system

First, the coupling evaluation indicators were preliminarily set, filtered and corrected by referring to the existing research results. Considering rural revitalization with Chinese characteristics, the CNKI database was used for advanced retrieval. The literature mainly came from 63 core Chinese journals, such as Tourism Journal, Economic Geography, China’s Agricultural Resources and Regionalization, and Geographic Research. The frequency and quantity of the highly cited literature were counted, and then we selected the indicators that have been used frequently in the past five years. Next, the theoretical analysis was carried out to define and expand the connotations of “rural revitalization in deep poverty areas” and “rural tourism in deep poverty areas”. Finally, those results were combined with interviews of experts, and an evaluation index system for the coupling and coordinated development of rural revitalization and rural tourism in deeply impoverished areas was constructed.
Fig. 1 Coupling relationship between rural revitalization and rural tourism
In this study, the evaluation index system was divided into three levels: system level, first level index and second level index. Rural tourism and rural revitalization are in the system level. The general requirements of the rural revitalization strategy, including the industrial prosperity, ecological livability, rural-style civilization, effective governance, and affluent life, were taken as the first-level indicators of the rural revitalization system (Liang and Pang, 2021). However, there are many research perspectives on rural tourism and the corresponding evaluation indicators. Based on the principle of coupling research, factors closely related to rural revitalization were selected as the evaluation indicators, and finally tourism products, tourism environment, tourism services, tourism brands and tourism benefits were selected as the secondary indicators of rural tourism system.
The final evaluation index system of rural revitalization and rural tourism coupling development includes two subsystems, 10 primary indicators and 34 secondary indicators (Table 3).
Table 3 Evaluation of the coupling relationship between rural revitalization and rural tourism in Didigu Village
Subsystem Primary indicators Secondary indicators Calculation method Attribute
Rural
vitalization		 Industrial prosperity X1 Total industrial production value X11 Total production value of all industries in the village Positive direction
Proportion of cash crop planting X12 Planting area of cash crops/total cultivated area Positive direction
Proportion of output value of non-agricultural industries X13 Non-agricultural industrial output value/total village output value Positive direction
Commodity rate of agricultural products X14 Sales of agricultural products/total agricultural products Positive direction
Ecologically livable
X2		 Green plant coverage X21 Green plant coverage area/total land area of the village Positive direction
Rural tap water penetration rate X22 Number of households with tap water access in the village/total number of households Positive direction
Popularity rate of sanitary toilets X23 Number of sanitary toilets used/total number of toilets Positive direction
Utilization rate of energy-saving stoves X24 Number of households using energy-saving stoves/total number of households in the village Positive direction
Country-style
civilization
X3		 Internet penetration rate X31 Number of users using broadband internet/total village population Positive direction
School-age children enrollment rate X32 Actual number of school-age children/total number of school-age children in the village Positive direction
Villagers’ degree of vocational training X33 Number of farmers with vocational training/total number of farmers Positive direction
Per capita cultural and leisure area X34 Leisure area/total population of the village Positive direction
Effective governance X4 Public satisfaction of village affairs X41 Annual satisfaction survey on village affairs publicity Positive direction
Management efficiency X42 Number of management personnel/total number of villagers Negative direction
Degree of farmers’ participation in grass-roots autonomy X43 Number of farmers participating in grass-roots self-government/total number of farmers Positive direction
Life satisfaction X44 Number of people satisfied with life/total number of people in the village Positive direction
Affluence
X5		 Common affluence X51 Poor population of the village/total population of the village Negative direction
Villager Engel’s coefficient X52 Total food expenditure of the villagers/total household expenditure of the villagers Negative direction
Car ownership per household X53 Number of cars/number of villagers Positive direction
Income ratio of urban and rural residents X54 Per capital income of villagers/per capital income of county residents Positive direction
Rural tourism Tourism products Y1 Diversity of tourism products Y11 Number of tourism products Positive direction
Sales revenue of tourism productsY12 Sales revenue of tourism products
Positive direction
Tourism environment Y2 Road hardening rate Y21 Hardened mileage of village roads/total mileage of village roads Positive direction
Days of good air quality Y22 Days of good air quality in the village Positive direction
Number of public tourist toilets Y23 Number of public tourist toilets Positive direction
Tourism service Y3 Number of rural tourism operators Y31 Number of rural tourism operators Positive direction
Annual training times of tourism practitioners Y32 Average annual training times of tourism practitioners Positive direction
Number of tourism practitioners Y33 Direct and indirect employment Positive direction
Tourism potential Y4 Honors at all levels related to tourism Y41 Obtained tourism-related honors at all levels (3 points at the municipal level, 5 points at the provincial level, and 10 points at the national level) Positive direction
Tourism publicity efforts Y42 Number of related news items by network searching Positive direction
Number of cultural activities with national characteristics Y43 Number of village-specific cultural activities Positive direction
Tourism benefits Y5 Total annual tourism income Y51 Annual tourism industry output value of the village Positive direction
Annual tourist reception Y52 Annual number of tourists received by the village Positive direction
Proportion of per capita tourism income to regional per capita income Y53 Per capita tourism income/regional per capita income Positive direction

4.2 Index data processing

In this study, the entropy method was used to process the index data in the coupling evaluation index system of rural tourism and rural revitalization in deeply impoverished areas. The standard value of the indicator data was obtained by the range method and deneutralization, and the entropy value and weight of the indicator were calculated on this basis (Liang and Pang, 2021). The specific calculation formula is shown in Formulas (1)-(4).
${{X}_{ij}}^{\prime }=\left\{ \begin{matrix} \frac{{{X}_{ij}}-{{X}_{i,\min }}}{{{X}_{i,\max }}-{{X}_{i,\min }}}\times 0.99+0.01\begin{matrix} {} & if\begin{matrix} {} \\ \end{matrix}{{X}_{ij}}\text{ is a positive indicator} \\ \end{matrix} \\ \frac{{{X}_{i,\max }}-{{X}_{ij}}}{{{X}_{i,\max }}-{{X}_{i,\min }}}\times 0.99+0.01\begin{matrix} {} & if & {{X}_{ij}}\text{ is a negative indicator} \\ \end{matrix} \\ \end{matrix} \right.$
where Xij’ is the standardized value of indicator Xij, and Xij is the indicator value of indicator i in year j. Xi,max is the maximum value of indicator i, while Xi,min is the minimum value of indicator i, and Zij is the weight of indicator i in year j.
The weight of the i-year evaluation index value under the j index system was calculated as:
${{Z}_{ij}}={{X}_{ij}}^{\prime }/\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{\mathop{\mathop{\sum }^{}}}}\,{{X}_{ij}}^{\prime }$
where Zij represents the proportion of the i-th evaluation index value; and m is the number of indicators.
The information entropy value of index i was determined as:
${{M}_{i}}=\frac{-\sum\limits_{j=1}^{n}{{{Z}_{ij}}\times \ln {{Z}_{ij}}}}{\ln n}$
where Mi represents the entropy value of index i; and n is the number of variables
The entropy redundancy value was calculated and the weight of index i was determined as:
${{W}_{i}}=(1-{{M}_{i}})/\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{\mathop{\mathop{\sum }^{}}}}\,{{M}_{i}}$
where Wi represents the weight of the i-th index.

4.3 Construction of the coupling degree model

Evaluation index: The development index of each subsystem was calculated by the weighting method to determine the contribution rate of each index in the system to the system. The calculation formula is:
${{U}_{1}}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{\mathop{\mathop{\sum }^{}}}}\,{{W}_{1i}}\times {{X}_{1i}}$
${{U}_{2}}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{\mathop{\mathop{\sum }^{}}}}\,{{W}_{2i}}\times {{X}_{2i}}$
where U1 represents the rural revitalization system, U2 represents the rural tourism system, W1i is the weight for the rural revitalization index X1i, and W2i is weight for the rural tourism index X2i.
Coupling degree: We used C to denote the coupling degree between the rural revitalization system and the rural tourism system in the deeply poor areas, which can effectively reflect the degree of coordinated development between rural revitalization and rural tourism. The coupling degree was calculated by using the calculation method of a capacity model in physics.
The calculation formula in this study is:
$C=\sqrt{\frac{{{U}_{1}}\times {{U}_{2}}}{{{\left( {{U}_{1}}+{{U}_{2}} \right)}^{2}}}}$
where C represents the coupling degree between the rural revitalization system and rural tourism system in the deeply poor areas, U1 represents the rural revitalization system, and U2 represents the rural tourism system.
The value range of C is 0 ≤ C ≤ 1, and a larger value of C indicates a higher coupling degree, and that a more orderly rural revitalization system and rural tourism system will develop.
In the existing research, the values of dividing coupling nodes vary. This study divided the coupling level of the rural tourism system and the rural revitalization system of ethnic villages in deep-poverty areas into five stages, as shown in Table 4.
In order to avoid the deviation of the coupling degree, the coupling coordination index was set. The calculation formula is:
$T=\alpha {{U}_{1}}+\beta {{U}_{2}}$
where T represents the comprehensive score after the systems U1 and U2 are weighted, reflecting the contribution level of the development of each system to the coupling coordination degree, and the value range is [0,1]. The variable coefficients α, β represent the contribution coefficients of rural tourism and rural revitalization, respectively. This study considers that the two variable coefficients are equally important, so each value is 0.5. The research period of this study is relatively short, so the coupling coordination degree was divided into ten levels by using the tenth method (Xu and Wang, 2019). See Table 5 for details.
Table 4 Divisions of the coupling degree between rural tourism and rural revitalization in ethnic villages in deep poverty areas
C values Coupling type Stage characteristics
0 Irrelevant There is no relationship between rural tourism and the rural revitalization system
0<C≤0.4 Low coupling The rural tourism system and rural revitalization system are at a low-level coupling stage
0.4<C≤0.6 Moderate coupling The interactive relationship between rural tourism and the rural revitalization system has become stronger, and the coupling effect is initially seen
0.6<C≤0.8 Highly coupling Rural tourism and the rural revitalization system cooperate with each other, and the coupling effect is significant
0.8<C≤1.0 Extreme coupling Rural tourism and the rural revitalization system are extremely coupled, and the coupling effect is maximized
Table 5 Classification standards of coupling coordination degree
Maladjustment stage Coordination stage
T Coordination level T Coordination level
[0, 0.1000) Extreme maladjustment [0.5001, 0.6000) Basic coordination
[0.1001, 0.2000) Serious maladjustment [0.6001, 0.7000) Primary coordination
[0.2001, 0.3000) Moderate maladjustment [0.7001, 0.8000) Intermediate coordination
[0.3001, 0.4000) Mild maladjustment [0.8001, 0.9000) Good coordination
[0.4001, 0.5000) On the verge of maladjustment [0.9001, 1.0000) Excellent coordination

5 Empirical research

5.1 Overview of the study site

Didigu Village, located in Ebian County, Sichuan Province, is adjacent to Heizhugou Scenic Area, which is known as “Bermuda in China”. It is a pure Yi village and a provincial-level poor village. In 2014, it accurately identified 266 people from 60 poor households, with a poverty incidence rate of 34.6%. The average altitude is 1080 m, and the forest coverage rate is 70%. The residential buildings are mainly in red, yellow and black, with bright colors, as well as fine and unique features. Didigu Village is a typical tourism village with Yi characteristics. It has rich and colorful ethnic and folk food, culture and activities. Some unique examples include soaking wine, Tuotuo meat, bride snatching, Bimo culture, Yi New Year, Tati dance, and others. In recent years, based on the unique location advantage, unique natural resources, and unique cultural customs, Didigu Village has vigorously developed its rural tourism with the development of the “Chanyi-Heizhugou Holiday Hotel” in a leading role. Through the “four actions” of new village construction, industrial development, cultural inheritance, and service improvement, it has formed a well-planned gateway station. The annual per capita net income of the villagers has increased year by year. The per capita net income was 3980 yuan in 2017, 6680 yuan in 2018, and 8900 yuan in 2019. Therefore, the village has removed the “poverty cap” and achieved common prosperity for its villagers. In July 2019, it was selected as one of the first batch of national key villages for rural tourism, and passed the standard with high quality by the end of December 2019. In 2020, it received 400000 tourists, with a comprehensive tourism income of 41.2 million yuan. In September 2021, it was rated as one of the top ten new cultural and tourism villages in Leshan City, and at the end of September 2021, it was rated as “Tianfu Famous Tourist Village”. In 2021, the per capita net income was 12050 yuan and the annual collective economy was 107880 yuan. Therefore, Didigu Village is a model of rural revitalization relying on rural tourism.

5.2 Data sources

The data in this study mainly came from Didigu Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County, with a time span of 2014-2021. The data were mainly from the village committee of Didigu Village in Ebian Yi Autonomous County, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of Ebian Yi Autonomous County, the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Ebian Yi Autonomous County, and the portal of Ebian Yi Autonomous County. In order to eliminate the deviations caused by differences in statistical caliber, the data were standardized in advance.

5.3 Results

The formulas above were used to calculate the comprehensive evaluation index of rural tourism and rural revitalization in Didigu Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County in each year from 2014 to 2021, and the coupling degree and coordination of rural tourism and the rural revitalization system (Table 6 and Fig. 2)
Table 6 Coupling analysis of rural revitalization and rural tourism in Didigu Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County
Year 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Comprehensive evaluation index of rural revitalization 0.058 0.279 0.386 0.468 0.526 0.578 0.615 0.652
Comprehensive evaluation index of rural tourism 0.086 0.367 0.456 0.568 0.625 0.707 0.719 0.726
Coupling degree 0.378 0.479 0.577 0.668 0.784 0.857 0.895 0.924
Coupling coordination degree 0.286 0.387 0.479 0.524 0.615 0.686 0.765 0.818
Coordination level Moderate
maladjustment		 Mild
maladjustment		 On the verge of
maladjustment		 Basic
coordination		 Primary
coordination		 Primary
coordination		 Intermediate coordination Good
coordination
Fig. 2 Coupling curve of rural revitalization and rural tourism in Didigu Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County

5.3.1 Comprehensive evaluation index analysis of rural revitalization and the rural tourism system

The coupling curve of rural revitalization and rural tourism of Didigu Village in Ebian Yi Autonomous County (Fig. 2) shows that the two indicators of rural revitalization and rural tourism steadily increased from 2014 to 2021. The comprehensive evaluation index of rural revitalization increased from 0.058 in 2014 to 0.652 in 2021, and the comprehensive evaluation index of rural tourism increased from 0.086 in 2014 to 0.726 in 2021, both with very significant growth effects. The analysis shows that in the past eight years, the rural revitalization and rural tourism of Didigu Village in Ebian Yi Autonomous County, as a minority village in former deep poverty areas, have both accomplished rapid development. Their pace of development is basically the same, and the positive effect on promoting the development of rural subjects is typical.

5.3.2 Analysis of the coupling degree between rural revitalization and rural tourism

In the eight years from 2014 to 2021, the coupling degree values between the rural revitalization and rural tourism of Didigu Village in Ebian Yi Autonomous County were 0.378, 0.479, 0.577, 0.668, 0.784, 0.857, 0.895 and 0.924, respectively. They show an upward trend, from a moderate imbalance to good coordination, with good system correlation and an obvious coupling effect. Specifically, in 2014, the degree was moderate imbalance, and in 2021, it was good coordination, with an average annual growth rate of 18.4%. In 2018 and 2019, primary coordination was achieved. Because of the national rural revitalization strategy and tourism poverty alleviation strategy, the Didigu Village integrated various policies, such as the new Yi village and the renovation of rural residential environment. It also adopted the construction mode of “small- scale, group style, micro pastoral and ecological”, and it incorporated Yi traditional elements such as the “solar calendar, ox head stakes, and ancient proverbs” into the whole process of the new village construction, realizing the close combination of human resources and the new village construction. The carrying capacity of the tourism supporting facilities was constantly increasing during the study period. At the same time, rural tourism cooperatives were established, the “1+4” action of key villages for poverty alleviation through tourism was vigorously implemented and the “three revolutions” of sewage, garbage and toilets were deeply promoted. Tourist service centers have been built, and the tourist toilets, tourism signs, tourist parking lots and other infrastructure have increased. The power distribution, water supply and drainage, communication networks and other service facilities have been improved, enhancing the soft power of tourism services; thus promoting the transformation of Didigu Village from card-punching scenic spot tourism to in-depth tourism, continuously enhancing the competitiveness of the tourism market, and taking full advantage of the policy dividend brought by poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. The Leshan Lishida Group was introduced to integrate the form, culture and ecology into one; and the first village-level culture hotel with Yi characteristics in Leshan, “Chanyi- Heizhugou Resort Hotel”, has been completed. In 2019, the whole village removed the poverty cap, and the rural revitalization and rural tourism initially achieved coordination. In summary, the degree of coupling and coordination has shown a good development trend.

6 Conclusions and suggestions

6.1 Conclusions

Taking Didigu Village, a Yi village in the deep poverty area of Ebian Yi Autonomous County, as an example, this study conducted an empirical analysis of the coupling and coordination between the two systems of rural revitalization and rural tourism in the eight years from 2014 to 2021. The specific conclusions are as follows.
(1) The comprehensive development index of the rural revitalization system and the rural tourism system has been on the increase, and the positive coupling between the systems has been deepening. The development of rural tourism has been the key factor in promoting rural revitalization. With the help of the Heizhugou Scenic Area, the rural tourism of Didigu Village has played an obvious role in guiding rural revitalization. The interaction between the rural tourism and the rural revitalization is increasing in strength, and there is still a large space for additional growth.
(2) The coupling degree and coordination degree between the rural revitalization of Didigu Village and rural tourism are good, but they still need to be further improved. Governmental guidance is the main driving force for the coupled development of rural revitalization and rural tourism. As a poverty-stricken minority village, the task of poverty alleviation is difficult, but the policy support for poverty alleviation is strong. The government's policies, funds, talents and technologies for rural revitalization and rural tourism development play an important role in the coupled development of rural revitalization and rural tourism.

6.2 Suggestions

Rural revitalization is the grand strategy of the CPC and China. However, it is not a simple economic revitalization, but an overall improvement of the rural development level based on rural economic development, including rural culture, rural governance, people’s livelihood, ecology, and other elements. It is a comprehensive rural revitalization. The development of rural tourism is precisely based on the beautiful countryside with obvious economic development advantages, strong cultural power, social harmony and peace, and ecological stability. Didigu Village in Ebian Yi Autonomous County is a typical example of the ethnic minority villages in the deep-poverty areas. In order to achieve highly coupled and coordinated relations between rural revitalization and rural tourism development, the government should exercise a top-level design function, thus promoting the driving role of cultural revitalization on rural tourism and making rural tourism a new way to realize the rural revitalization.
(1) The government should do a good job in top-level design to improve the quality and efficiency of rural revitalization
Industrial prosperity is the primary task of rural revitalization. It is necessary to strengthen top-level design, carry out key tasks, continue to improve the village infrastructure, make good use of the unique local flavor of the village, actively promote the integration of agriculture and tourism, and plan and integrate the agricultural resources and tourism resources that can be seen, eaten, played and studied; so that the development of rural industry is flourishing, and people’s livelihood security continues to improve. These steps are necessary to improve the core competitiveness of rural tourism and improve the quality and efficiency of rural revitalization.
(2) Accelerate the revitalization of rural culture and promote the quality of rural tourism
Culture is a special power, which can shape people’s spiritual world and form a spiritual bond that connects people together. The strengthening the revitalization of rural culture can inject strong spiritual power into rural revitalization. As a Yi village, Didigu Village should deeply explore the connotation of Yi culture, actively promote publicity, cultivate cultural successors, and achieve the integration and development of traditional culture and rural tourism. We should actively promote the high-quality development of national cultural products, help the formation of characteristics and brands of national cultural creative products, and strive to improve the added value of local cultural products, in order to further boost the development of the rural economy and the prosperity of the rural culture. These steps will deeply tap into the potential of national cultural resources, and promote rural revitalization with industrial and cultural revitalization.
(3) Improve the quality of rural tourism and promote the overall revitalization of rural areas
The development of rural tourism is an important engine for promoting rural revitalization and a strong driving force for accelerating industrial transformation and upgrading. It is necessary to improve the quality of rural tourism and strive to promote the development of rural tourism in order to achieve new breakthroughs. First, we should improve our position, build consensus, actively promote the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and accelerate the high-quality development of rural tourism. Second, we should make the goals clear and focus on the key points, relying on Heizhugou Scenic Area, taking high-quality tourism products as the carrier, focusing on Yi culture, leisure and health and other advantageous tourism elements, and vigorously developing new forms of business and new products with strong experience. Third, we need to strengthen security, implement precise policies, improve the supply of land, capital and other elements, cultivate and introduce high-level professionals, maintain good market order, and resolutely curb tourism safety accidents. Fourth, we should strengthen leadership, consolidate responsibilities, innovate working mechanisms, increase publicity, create a strong atmosphere for the whole society to support and participate in the development of rural tourism industry, and ultimately promote the overall revitalization of the rural areas.

References

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